


Hugs Not Space Drugs

by kingdomfaraway



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Irondad, Minor Original Character(s), Nightmares, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Peter Parker is a Mess, Space Drugs, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, spiderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:06:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 35,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27685343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingdomfaraway/pseuds/kingdomfaraway
Summary: Peter had meant to keep his promise about only protecting the “little guy” but sometimes the criminals of New York made it incredibly difficult.At least, that’s who he was blaming it on.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 16
Kudos: 78





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Ah, so I had the idea for this fic a while back and wrote a bit of it before moving on. Then I started another one that was very similar to this one and abandoned that one. Then I finished Just An Intern and decided to look back on some WIP and saw the two similar and abandoned works. I hesitated on finishing them because it kind of reminded me of Just An Intern but then I was like meh, I really don’t care, I like this story. So here it is.
> 
> There is some fleeting inspiration from the Stargate Atlantis episode Doppelganger. I rewatched that episode for inspiration and absolutely not to watch Sheppard fight himself again. Nope, no ulterior motives here.
> 
> You can consider this canon compliant until after Homecoming and then you know, I do what I want. *hair flip*
> 
> Warning: There is a lot of swearing so if you don't care for it, then skip. There is also a lot of drug talk, although the drug use is minor and not graphic. The drug addiction aspect is not described but referenced.

Peter had meant to keep his promise about only protecting the “little guy” but sometimes the criminals of New York made it incredibly difficult. 

At least, that’s who he was blaming it on.

He had heard about an alien tech deal by accident. It had been one of those, right places right time situations. As in Peter just so happened to be hanging outside a place known criminals hung out at and it was at such a time that these criminals tended to meet up.

He was just checking in on them, that’s all. He had some dogged determination to clean up any tech that Toomes might have left behind. He knew Mr. Stark had done a good job of cleaning out a lot of what Toomes did personally, but there were still some people dealing with alien tech on the outskirts. Peter was determined to finish the job himself and make his city as safe as possible. 

Ergo, finding out about an alien arms dealing happening in Richmond Hills. Since it was happening locally and within Queens, Peter figured it really wasn’t against Mr. Stark’s rules.

The fact that he was coming up with more and more excuses for his actions made him realize it probably was against Mr. Stark’s rules.

There were certainly worse things he could do.

The deal was taking place in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant, which just screamed drug deal. It also meant there weren't a lot of good vantage points Peter could perch from. He ended up on the building’s roof, close enough to the edge but he wasn’t able to see over it. Even though it was dark outside, if he stood up, he’d be visible to anyone who might lookup. Instead, he let droney sit on the ledge and he watched through the HUD of his suit.

He knew the deal was going down around 10:30 or so and he could only hope the arms dealers were punctual. His curfew was midnight, he’d only have a small window of time to get the guys, web them up and get back home. There was a part of him that couldn’t wait until he was an actual adult, so he could stay out later than midnight. He knew, logically, it would be a disaster for him, but it was a disaster he created, so it was fine.

He let out an involuntary yawn. He had spent a majority of nights that week trying to get a handle on this weapons deal. He stayed out until 10:00, his normal weekday curfew but when he came home, he had homework to finish. The average time he went to sleep that week was close to 2:00 am and of course, up by 6:00 to get out to school.

His spider metabolism helped a little, he could go without a certain amount of sleep but eventually, it would catch up with him. He was just about to take out his phone when he heard a car door shut and the sound of another quickly after. He positioned droney a little better and the view of two guys standing between two cars came into view.

He was able to hear some of their conversations thanks to his enhanced hearing, but not enough to know exactly what was happening. He very slowly had droney head down the wall and closer to the action.

“You think the stuffs good?” The taller of the two men was saying. He looked rather shifty, he was wearing a dark hoodie that sat over his head, obscuring his face from droney’s view. The other guy, who was only a few inches shorter, was wearing a light jacket and made no effort to hide his face.

“Eh,” the guy responded, he had a thick New York accent that sounded really, really fake. Like he watched way too many cop shows on TV and decided that’s what he wanted to sound like. “It’s from space, ain’t that makin it worth somethin’?”

“Space aint special no more,” the taller guy said and Peter snickered. 

The shorter guy snickered too and mumbled something people couldn't hear.

The shorter guy shrugged his shoulders. “Listen, if you’re gettin’ chicken ‘bout this, then I’ll move on…”

“No, no,” Taller guy called out, he took his hands from his pocket and held up his hands. “I’ll take ‘um, yesh.”

He shoved his hand back into his pocket and pulled out a wad of cash. 

“Ohh,” Peter said, he rarely got to see this part of the deal. He usually just caught the guys talking and maybe showing off the goods. He hadn’t seen cash exchange hands yet, he was kinda excited about it. The shorter guy turned back to his car and leaned into the passenger seat window. Droney was angled away, so Peter couldn’t see what he was doing. Instead, he focused on the taller guy, who stood bouncing on his heels a little. Peter wished he would take the hood down, he wanted to try and see if Karen could ID him. 

“Next time the short guy turns, try to ID him, Karen,” Peter asked her. The guy turned just as Peter asked and to his surprise, he wasn’t holding a weapon.

He was holding a small baggie.

“Drugs?” Peter said, maybe a little too loud because both men turned their heads.

“You hear that?” the taller guy asked, in the second he turned his head Peter got a view of his face briefly. 

“It was nuttin’,” the shorter guy answered, holding the baggie between them. “Let’s go.”

“Karen, can you zoom in on the baggie and try to identify it or at least get a good view of it? I think it might be space drugs.”

If Peter wasn’t so worried about what said space drugs might do, he might have found it a little funny. Peter leaned back on his haunches, he wondered if he should jump down and stop the deal from happening. He had seconds to make the decision, the goods and money had just exchanged hands.

It wasn’t weapons, but drugs were also bad, especially if they were from space. At the same time, he had no idea where the shorter guy got the drugs from. He knew where the weapons might be coming from but this was the first time drugs were involved. If he jumped the gun now, he might never find the source.

Mr. Stark would be proud of him, he thought, as he watched the exchange take place. He was learning from the ferry incident and he stayed where he was. He made sure Karen recorded all of the footage from droney, as well as getting a good shot of both license plates. 

By the time the guys pulled out of the parking lot, it was only 11:00. He thought about calling Mr. Stark about the deal, but he figured he’d wait until he had a little more information.

So maybe Peter wasn’t really learning from his mistakes.

~*~

Peter wasn’t a detective.

He was painfully aware of that. He watched Sherlock, he read Batman comics, he watched Law & Order and he knew John Muhlany’s street smart bit by heart but that was the overall extent of his detective knowledge. 

He had Karen and his learned street smarts, those were the only two assets (if he could even call them that) that he had going for him. 

That and he was really stubborn.

Karen was able to identify both guys at the deal. The short guy went by Dodger on the street and the taller guy was named Lloyd. Both of them were low key criminals, they had a few petty thefts on their records, but nothing major. Peter couldn’t risk having Karen look more, he knew Mr. Stark didn’t look at his stuff but he didn’t want to risk it just in case the man was feeling nosey. 

Finding Toomes and everything that followed, Peter knew, was a lot of dumb Parker Lucker. Had he not been Liz’s Dad, the likelihood of Peter ever getting anywhere near him was pretty low. While he didn’t want another arresting classmate's parent incident, he was hoping his Parker Luck would strike again.

Peter had made a few “contacts” as he called them. Ever since he got lucky with Aaron Davis, he made an effort to learn the names of some people who might be able to help him in the future. One was a guy named Ricky, who Peter found on the street in the middle of an overdose. Peter was able to get him help but was sad to see him back on the street a few weeks later. After talking to the guy he found Ricky was stuck in a vicious cycle of being on the streets, getting drugs, getting arrested, going to rehab, and then ending up back on the streets to start over again.

He made the decision to talk to May about better options and thanks to her job at the nonprofit, she helped Ricky get into a better rehab place. Ricky had been clean for a few months now and even had a job and a place to live. Peter didn’t want to bring up drugs with him, but if anyone might know what was going on, Ricky would be the one. Peter headed over to Ricky’s apartment, happy to find the guy sitting on his stoop.

“Hey Webs,” Ricky called out as Peter swung down from the building and landed on the ground. “What brings you out here tonight?”

Peter walked over, giving Ricky a wave. “Hey, Ricky. I uh, I was wondering if you could help me out for something.”

“Anything for you,” Ricky said with such sincerity it made Peter blush.

Peter came over and stood one step down from the stoop Ricky was on. He didn’t want to be overheard, so he leaned down a little. “There’s a guy, goes by Dodger, who seems to be selling a special kind of drug, that’s uh, well, it’s from space.” He tried to sound very serious so he added. “Possibly.”

Ricky laughed rather loudly and Peter grinned under the mask, he felt really silly asking about space drugs. “Haven’t really heard anything about space drugs,” Ricky chuckled. “But I know the guy you’re talking about. He’s a real piece of work, doesn’t touch the stuff but he’s more than willing to sell drugs to anyone who’d pay for it.”

“Do you know where he normally sells? I saw him out in Richmond Hills.”

Ricky nodded. “He gets around, he doesn’t stick to one area. He’s just a middle man anyway, he doesn’t make the stuff.”

“You know where he might be getting drugs from?” Peter asked hopefully. Ricky met the eyes of his suit and gave him a look. Peter recognized it, it’s the “this is too big for you Peter Parker look”. 

“I might, but listen, you don’t want to get mixed up with these guys, Webs. Drug selling is a dangerous gig, no one’s worried about racking up dead bodies to get what they want,” he paused and pursed his lips. “Dodger’s done work for the Manfredi’s, if he’s selling something new it might be from them.” He paused and licked his lips, a habit Peter noticed he did often. “I’ll put some feelers out. See if I can get a base for you. But you need to keep your sticky webs out of it. Pass it along to the big guns, alright?”

Ricky didn’t know Peter’s age, but he figured the guy knew he was on the young side. His voice gave it away and his demeanor most of the time. He knew Ricky was just trying to look out for him, but he was making no promises.

“Yeah, thanks, Ricky.”

~*~

Ricky came through a few days later. 

Sure enough, it looked like Dodger was working for the Manfredi family. Peter wasn’t exactly thrilled with the news. He had tried to keep clear of the crime families in New York. He skidded on the edge most of the time, he’d tip off the police anytime he got any information. But this, this was different. They weren’t just dealing with regular drugs, they might be dealing with space drugs and Peter took that as something he needed to investigate. 

If it wasn’t, he’d drop it and tip the police off and if it was… then he was going to see it through. At least until he could hand Mr. Stark the location of the drug lab. 

Ricky gave him a few locations he knew Dodger frequented and Peter added them into his normal patrols. He wasn’t planning on involving Ned with the whole thing, he didn’t want to put him in this kind of danger, but Ned noticed the additional locations to his patrol. Peter was out on patrol with Ned on the call when he brought it up.

Peter’s first instinct was to lie, but on second thought he went with the truth. 

“Space drugs?” Ned questioned. “Are you sure it wasn’t just all talk?”

Peter shrugged. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out now. I don’t want to just jump into something again. I want to make sure I have evidence and stuff.”

“Are you going to tell Mr. Stark? I think you should tell him.”

“I’ve got nothing to tell him,” Peter insisted. “When I find out what’s happening, I’ll go to him,” he paused and then added. “I promise.”

He let a yawn escape him, he was more bored than tired, waiting around for drug dealers. He wasn’t doing much besides sitting on fire escapes and rooftops. He was painfully aware of just how little he knew about stuff like this. It was really all luck with Toomes.

Ned was silent for just a little too long so Peter asked. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m just worried, that’s all. You got in over your head with the Toomes thing and you almost died.”

Homecoming was only four months ago and the event was still fresh in both their minds. Peter had confided in Ned about the collapsed building and just how difficult the final fight with Toomes had been. Ned was the only person who knew just how close to dying Peter had been and it was clearly taking a toll on him. Peter knew how ridiculously lucky he was to have a friend like Ned, especially since he was willing to stand by Peter during his more stupid and reckless moments.

Peter felt bad immediately. “I’m sorry. I promise I won’t let it get as bad as the Toomes thing did. You have my permission to tell Mr. Stark about me if I get into trouble. Believe me, I don’t want to get in the way of the Manfredi family either. I just want to get the space drugs off the streets.”

“Calling it space drugs makes it really hard to take it seriously,” Ned said with a laugh.

“What else am I supposed to call it?” Peter said, grinning back. “Drugs from space! Space drugs!”

They both erupted in giggles, it was a little immature but it was nice to laugh with his friend. Things had been so serious lately, a laugh was something Peter needed.

“How are you going to find that Dodger guy?” Ned asked after the laughter died down.

“Ricky gave me some info on where he sells often. I’ve just been bouncing back and forth between those locations the last few nights.”

“And then, what’s the plan? Stop the deal? Follow Dodger home?”

“Eh,” Peter said truthfully. “I was planning on getting a sample of the space drug, just to see if we can figure out what’s in it.”

“You say we like one of us has any way to figure out what kind of drug it might be.”

“It can’t be that hard,” Peter replied with a shrug. “I’m sure we can figure something out or at least, find someone who can help us.”

Ned sighed. “You know, one day we’ll get better at this right?”

An hour later Peter had moved on to a different street corner but was having the same amount of luck on that one. He was starting to rethink his plan.

“How do people get drugs so easily?” Peter bemoaned to Ned, as he sat on the fire escape. “I can’t even find them and I know not only who's selling them but where. It’s like the guy took a vacation the week I want to find him.”

“Yeah, I mean, like how do you find your drug dealer? Do you think people just see someone and know they sell drugs?”

Peter was just about to reply when Dodger came walking down the corner. Peter was so surprised he almost shouted. “Ned! He’s here! Call you back.” 

He disconnected as Ned said goodbye and watched as Dodger walked by the building and stopped in the alleyway below him. It was dark enough outside that Peter was nearly invisible on the fire escape. Dodger was standing in the dark of the alleyway, his face stuck in his phone. After a few minutes, a guy came walking down the street and awkwardly ducked into the alley. 

The whole thing was so, so painfully cliche, Peter had a hard time believing it was all real. Peter was wondering how Dodger managed not to get caught constantly. He didn’t seem to hide the fact that he was dealing, especially in the locations he picked. He felt like he was watching an episode of Law and Order.

“Dodger,” the guy said and Dodger nodded. “Cool. Uh, how much again?”

“Fifty per gram.”

“Fifty?” The guy questioned. 

“It’s from space,” Dodger deadpanned. Peter couldn’t get a good view of the other guy’s face but he must have frowned because Dodger made an annoying sound. “You want it or not? I got other people interested if you ain’t.”

“No, no,” the guy said. Peter couldn’t tell what he was doing, but he figured the guy was getting money out because a minute later Dodger handed him the bag after getting something in return. They talked again, but Peter couldn’t hear them. After a second Dodger took off down the street, while the other guy stayed in the alleyway.

Peter made his way slowly down the side of the building. The guy wasn’t looking his way, instead, he was too busy opening the small baggie. Peter quietly landed across from the guy, who still hadn't noticed him. He straightened up and cleared his throat.

The guy’s head shot up and Peter put his hands out. “Drugs aren’t cool,” Peter said lamely. He had to get better at this part too. 

The guy’s back was already against the wall, so he didn’t have any place else to go. Instead, he gripped the baggie tightly in his hands and looked at Peter. “Shit, what the fuck are you?”

Peter squinted his eyes. “I’m uh, Spider-man?”

“Who?” The guy questioned, looking less terrified and more straight-up annoyed.

“Spider-man. I fight crime. I’m an Avenger.”

The guy snorted, loudly. “Yeah okay, they let just any freak in a leotard join the Avengers. Alright, sure. Whatever dude.”

Peter was scoffed at him. “First of all, it’s not a leotard. Secondly, I’m not a freak. This conversation is getting away from us. Listen, it doesn’t matter, just do me a favor and give me the drugs.”

The guy held the baggie to his chest. “No.”

“They make this so much easier on TV,” Peter mumbled and then lifted his hand up to shoot out a web at the baggie. The guy must have thought Peter had a gun or some other kind of weapon because he brought his hands up to cover his face and chest. The web made contact with the baggie and when Peter went to pull it, the guy did not let go easily.

“Buy your own damn drugs!” The guy snapped at him, holding onto the bag tightly. Peter was stronger and after applying only a little more pressure, pulled the baggie from the guy’s hand. Unfortunately, the baggie was not made for a game of tug of war, and the second it ripped from the guy’s hand, it ripped open.

“Shit!” They both yelled at the same time.

Peter was close enough to get almost a face full of the stuff and he immediately started backing up. “Karen,” he said quickly. “Help.”

“The suit will filter out chemicals, but I would suggest leaving, Peter. I do not know what the substance is.”

Peter decided that sounded like a good idea and turned, shooting a web back up the fire escape he came from. He coughed, he wasn’t quite sure how much of the stuff he inhaled, but he knew it had to be some. He had a bitter taste in his mouth and once he was up on the fire escape, he took his mask off and spit on the ground.

He took several measured breaths, trying to breathe in the clean air around him. He didn’t feel any different but that didn’t mean anything. The medication worked differently for him since the spider bite. Over the counter stuff did nothing and even the strong stuff seemed to wear off quickly. 

He waited a few minutes, his breathing was normal, his heart rate didn’t seem to be increasing very much. Maybe he got lucky, he didn’t take a full hit of the stuff. 

He pulled his mask back over his face. “Karen?” He asked. “Can you check to see if I’m okay?”

A minute later Karen responded. “Your vitals do not suggest that you are in distress, however since you inhaled a foreign substance I advise you seek medical attention.”

Logically he knew he should call Mr. Stark in the least, but he’d make Peter stop investigating especially now that Peter messed up. 

Instead, he called Ned as he made his way back towards this apartment. “They really make things look a lot easier on TV,” he said when Ned answered.

“I take it you weren’t successful? Are you okay?”

“Yeah I’m fine,” he sort of lied and then, “well, I think I am. I was trying to get the drugs from the guy who bought it and I might have ripped the bag open. I may or may not have inhaled some of the drugs.”

“Peter!” Ned yelled and Peter winced as he landed on a roof. He knew Ned was going to yell at him, but at least he told the truth. “Call Mr. Stark! You don’t know what that stuff was!”

“I know, I know but I’m fine. Karen said I was perfectly normal and I barely inhaled any of it. Drugs don’t work the same with me now. I can take a whole bottle of aspirin and I’d be fine.”

“That’s not at all comforting,” Ned answered but then made a loud sigh. “Fine, fine. Just if things start to feel bad, let me know and if you look like shit tomorrow I’m calling Mr. Stark.”

Peter begrundingly agreed with Ned and hung up, as he finished his trip home. When he took the suit off he noticed a bit of the grainy powder had clung to his gloves. He scraped it off carefully and put it in a plastic bag. He tucked it away carefully in his underwear drawer, he would have to hide it until he could figure out what to do with it.

~*~

Peter walked down the beach at Coney Island, bits of plane and fire surrounding him. He could feel the heat of the flames licking closer to his skin and he flinched away. 

“Wha?” He tried to say but his mouth barely opened. He blinked at his surroundings, he was dreaming, he had to be. There was no way he was back on that beach with the wreckage all around him. He started to try and walk forward and the flames seemed to follow his path, lashing out and around him.

He was getting warm, too warm. He tried to turn and go a different way, but the flames started blocking his path at each turn. Soon the flames rose up, towering high above him, erasing the landscape around him. The flames moved together, becoming the shape of the Vulture’s suit, the fire wings spreading. 

Peter turned to turn but instead found the sand had become too thick around him. He couldn’t get his feet up, no matter how hard he tried. It was like the sand had arms, it reached up and pulled him down, keeping him in place.

The fire Vulture came closer, it’s wings surrounding Peter, encasing him in flames.

He screamed as loud as he could. His whole body felt like it was on fire now, he could smell his flesh burning and then -

Then he was on the floor of his room, blankets tangled around him. He was breathing heavily, covered in sweat. He blinked into the darkness, he still felt the flames against his skin. He pushed the blanket off his legs, desperate to make sure there wasn’t any fire. He could feel the burning pain but there was nothing there and the smell of burning skin and fire was gone.

It took several minutes of deep breathing before Peter was able to push himself up and sit back on the bed. He reached over and grabbed his phone, it was only 5:00. He’d have an hour of sleep left if he felt like going back to bed. He’d gotten home a little earlier than usual and had been in bed by midnight. Five hours of sleep was acceptable, heck that was even an improvement, even with the nightmare.

The shirt and pants he had on were uncomfortably sweaty against his skin and he decided to take a shower now. May wouldn’t be up for another hour but she was a heavy sleeper, the shower shouldn’t wake her. 

Peter wasn’t a stranger to nightmares. He knew he had them after his parents died, he couldn’t remember them, but he remembered May and Ben holding him at night. He remembered waking up to find one of them sitting at the bedside, usually holding his hands. As he got older the nightmares went away, then he got bitten by a spider and Ben died and well, Homecoming happened.

After that, the nightmares seemed to return but he was getting used to them now.

He took his time in the shower, letting the water cool him off. He was still feeling hot when he got in. He hadn’t been sick since the spider bite, so he figured it wasn’t a fever. He briefly wondered if it was the delayed sick effect of the drugs he was exposed to but wrote it off. By the time he got out of the shower he was feeling much better, his body temperature returned back to normal. 

Ned didn’t even comment that he looked like shit when he got to school, so he didn’t think any more of it.


	2. Chapter 2

“Looks like Special K,” Ricky said as he looked at the grainy white powder. Peter figured he would be the only person to identify it. He tried Googling it, but there were a lot of drugs with a similar look and he didn’t know much else about it. He would have asked Karen again but figured she might have to alert Mr. Stark if Peter was asking her to identify drugs for him.

Ricky seemed like the safest bet.

He opened the bag and gave it a sniff. “Mixed with someone else, the color and smell are a little off. Don’t know what tho. You said Dodger charged $50 for it?”

“Um yeah, he said fifty a gram.”

“That’s a little high for just regular Special K.”

Peter nodded as if he was agreeing with Ricky’s assessment, despite not having any clue how much drugs cost. Ricky seemed to notice this. “Special K, it’s just an animal tranq, ketamine. It’s usually $25 or so a gram.”

“So whatever it’s laced with is making it more expensive,” Peter concluded. He reached his hand out for the bag again but Ricky didn’t move to hand it to him.

“Mind if I keep it? I can give it to some buddies of mine, they might be able to get you an answer.” 

Peter’s hand hung in the air along with a very pregnant pause. There wasn’t very much in the bag, certainly not enough to get high, but leaving drugs with a person recovering from addiction did not sit well with Peter. He felt bad enough he was asking Ricky for help, he didn’t want to risk his health over something like this.

Peter didn’t drop his hand. “Nah, that’s okay. I have someone who can take a look.”

Ricky handed the bag over, rather slowly and then nodded. “You takin’ this to the big boys?”

“Not yet,” Peter said, finally dropping his hand away now that he had the bag back. “I want to find out where it's coming from first. I figure I can just track down Dodger and see where he comes and goes.”

Ricky made a sound between a laugh and a grunt. “You’re acting like this is the movies, Webs. Dodger ain’t gonna just walk straight out of a drug lab holding a box labeled drugs, y’know. He’s just the dealer. He gets nowhere near where they make it.”

Peter nodded, feeling really stupid. He was relying a lot on information he learned from the entertainment he had to have known it wasn’t going to be that simple. He was dealing with a real-life crime family, he had to remember it. He got lucky with Toomes, he stumbled upon the source pretty quickly.

“Don’t feel stupid Webs, I just don’t want ya chasing someone that’s not gonna help you.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Thanks anyway, Ricky.”

He took a step down from the stoop, starting to turn when Ricky started talking again. “I know you’re just trying to look out for the little guy. I get it, I don’t want drugs on the streets as much as you don’t,” he paused and then looked around, craning his neck back and forth. “Dodger’s their dealer out here in Queens. If he’s gettin’ the drugs from them, it’s outta Upper Manhattan. If he’s going that way he’s getting something.”

“Thanks,” Peter said genuinely. 

~*~

Peter was underwater.

He was sinking slowly, his body almost drifting in the water, moving down, down, down, down.

His arms and legs were kicking out desperately trying to go up, back to the surface he couldn’t even see anymore. There was no light, just inky darkness that came from all directions. His body was throbbing, his lungs were on fire, desperately looking for any oxygen available. He opened his mouth and a rush of salty seawater rushed in, he could feel it choking him and he tried to cough, tried to exhale water but nothing worked.

Every single cell in his body was screaming for oxygen. The pressure of the water felt like it was squeezing him, trying to drag him down to the bottom. He was losing energy, losing the ability to move his arms and legs, and eventually, he couldn’t anymore. Instead, he floated, his body still and almost as if it was resigned to its fate now. 

And then something screamed in his brain, an instinct not to drown. Something that pulled at him from the inside and then -

He jackknifed up in bed, arms mid flair and he sucked in a breath so quickly it felt like a thousand knives in his chest. He heaved, the feeling of water in his lungs lingered with him and he started to try and cough up any water. But there wasn’t anything and it took several long seconds of deep ragged breathing before he finally had enough oxygen in his starving lungs.

He blinked a few times, the room wasn’t dark like the water, there was more than enough light. His lungs still felt like fire. His body felt weak like he really had been fighting against drowning. He half expected to be soaking wet, but he found the opposite, he was freezing. He reached for the blank that had fallen down his legs and pulled it up to his chest.

Just like he had with the fire dream a few nights ago, this one felt like it was lingering in his skin. He reached out for his phone, it was 5:45, he sighed. At least this time the dream didn’t cause him that much lost sleep.

He was still a little shaky as he got up and ready for school but by the time he arrived, he felt better.

~*~

Peter knew he didn’t have the time or resources to follow Dodger around, so he did the next best thing. With Ned’s help, they made their own small trackers, which Peter linked to an app on his phone. It took a few days of looking, but eventually, Peter came across Dodger and his car making another drug deal. This time, instead of getting in the way of it Peter attached it to Dodger’s car. He figured he could keep an eye out and if he saw Dodger heading to Manhattan he could go out and follow him, or if he couldn’t, then he’d at least have an address.

Dodger kept in Queens for the first few days. Peter felt bad he was just letting all these drug deals take place and not stopping them. Apart of him wanted to stop them from happening but he knew he couldn’t just yet. He was worried what he’d done the week before would scare them off but Dodger seemed just as busy, if not busier. 

He visited a few places outside of the immediate area, but nothing in Manhattan. He frequented a place that was near Ricky’s for a while, Peter made though it was home base since he left his car there often. He wanted to investigate but he wanted to focus more on where Ricky was meeting with the Manfredi family over where the guy lived. 

By the time Thursday night rolled around he was practically glued to his phone, watching Dodger’s car move around the city. He’d been out since the morning, stopping at various places all over Queens and now it seemed like he was heading towards Manhattan. It was just Peter’s luck that he’d be there after school today too, although for a different reason.

Thursday nights were lab nights at the Tower. Mr. Stark had decided against selling the building and while it wasn’t in full use, he used it frequently. They started the tradition a few months ago, Peter would come over after school for a few hours. They’d work on different things, sometimes they’d do nothing at all but eat and watch TV.

Last week Mr. Stark had canceled on him, which Peter was secretly happy about. He thought about canceling on him this week but knew it would be suspicious. So he went with Happy after school and with a lot less energy than usual, made his way up to the lab. He mumbled his hellos and started working at his lab table.

He kept his phone sitting on the lab table, the app open. He kept glancing over as he watched Dodger’s dot move into the city. He usually left the Tower around 9:00, if Dodger was sticking around he could maybe head out to where he was and watch him. Happy usually drove him home, but maybe he could convince Mr. Stark to let him swing home instead. 

“Earth to Peter,” Mr. Stark said from his right. Peter turned and blinked at him, clearly, the man had been talking to him because he gave Peter a concerned look. “Spacey much today?”

“Sorry,” Peter said sheepishly, taking his eyes away from the phone and looking over at Mr. Stark. He let out a yawn, his eyes watering slightly. The two different nightmares in the same week weren’t helping the tiredness he usually felt. 

“You’re spacey today. Not out late last night?” Mr. Stark asked. Peter knew he wasn’t checking Karen’s logs anymore. He wanted to keep that trust going and in any case, he hadn’t been out late that night.

“Nah, I’ve just been busy with school work and stuff.”

“Mmmhmm,” Mr. Stark responded and Peter couldn’t tell if he believed him or not. “Want to take a break?”

Peter looked down at the web shooters in his hand. He couldn’t even really remember what he had been doing with them he’d been so distracted watching the app. “Yeah, that’s fine.”

They made their way into the living room, Peter plopped down on the couch. Mr. Stark joined him on the other side and flipped on the TV. He navigated to the episode of The Office they were on, Peter was introducing Mr. Stark to the wonders of binging TV shows. The man claimed he was always too busy to enjoy things like that, but Peter was determined to show him some of his favorites.

“You’ve been pretty active in the suit lately,” Mr. Stark said, still facing the TV. Peter’s heart rate picked up a little. He really didn’t want to have to lie to Mr. Stark about anything. “Not that I’ve been spying on you. I just get that weekly digest of activity, that’s all.”

Both Mr. Stark and May insisted on being sent a weekly digest of just how much Peter had been in the suit. It wasn’t too detailed, but they both claimed it was to make sure he wasn’t overdoing it.

“Oh,” Peter said, not really knowing how to proceed. Things were different between him and Mr. Stark now. He was trying, making a real push towards being a better mentor the lab nights were proof of that. And so were the once a month weekends spent at the Compound, hanging out with most of the Avengers. He didn’t want to ruin a good thing, it took a long time to get to this point. “Yeah. You know what they say, crime doesn’t sleep!” He said, maybe a little too nervously.

Mr. Stark turned and raised an eyebrow at him. “Okay, now you’re acting suspiciously.”

Peter silently cursed himself and his awkwardness. “Um, yeah, sorry. I just don’t want you to get mad I’m out and about. I’m following curfew!” He added. “And I’m staying out of trouble! I promise.”

“And that’s even more suspicious,” Mr. Stark said but then laughed. “Chill out, kid. It’s fine. I wanted to make sure you weren’t pushing yourself too much. You’ve got a lot going on, you need time to be a kid.”

“Oh yeah,” Peter said. “Yeah, I’m good. Just a little tired lately, that’s all.” He settled on somewhat of the truth. 

Mr. Stark seemed satisfied at that answer but before could turn back to the TV, Peter had an idea. “Actually, uh, I’m pretty tired. Do you think I can go home a little early? Happy doesn’t have to drive me either.”

“Happy can drive you kid, it’s a long way back to Queens.”

“I kind of want to swing there? I mean, I know I said I was tired but it helps relax me. I’ve been having a hard time falling asleep some nights and just swinging around seems to help put me to sleep.”

Mr. Stark eyed him if he wasn’t suspicious before, he was sure as hell was going to be now. Peter sighed and shrugged, there was no way he was going to get out early now. 

“If you can’t tell me the truth then things aren’t going to go well for us. I saw you checking your phone constantly since you walked in. Now tell me, what’s going on?”

Peter’s brain immediately barreled into a lie. It surprised Peter just how fast he was able to put it together. “There’s this girl, uh, Michelle. I like her and we’ve been uh texting tonight. She wanted me to stop by tonight to uh, say hi and well, she lives right over the river and I know that’s like kinda far and all but I didn’t want Happy to have to drive me there because that’s just embarrassing and she doesn’t know I’m Spider-man or anything but I just wanted to -”

“Woah, woah there Romeo,” Mr. Stark interrupted, holding his hands up. “Geez, kid. You could have just said you wanted to sneak into a girl’s house. That’s a normal kid thing, I’m actively encouraging you to be a normal teen for once.”

“Oh yeah, okay,” Peter said, brain finally running out of things to say. Peter spared a glance at his phone, Dodger was in one location, about 10 minutes from the Tower. It had to be where he was getting the drugs from. 

“Do we need to have a talk about the birds and the bees?”

“What?” Peter’s head shot up. “What? Oh oh, no, god no. Please don’t.”

Mr. Stark laughed. “Kidding, geez. You need to lighten up tonight, Pete. Maybe you should go over to your girl’s house, stress relief -”

“Oh god,” Peter said, now realizing this was not the best avenue to go down. He honestly didn’t know what would have been worse, telling Mr. Stark wanted to go to a drug deal or having to listen to this. “God, just please stop talking. It’s not like that. We aren’t… together.”

Mr. Stark laughed again and Peter rolled his eyes, pocketing his phone. “Alright kid, you can go to your friend’s house tonight. I promise I won’t tell your Aunt if you promise to be home by curfew. If you need a ride, give me a call, I’ll send Happy.”

“Really? Cool. Yeah, no. I’m going to stay for like a few minutes tops. Just to say hi and uh, talk about stuff. Like Academic Decathlon stuff,” Peter said hastily getting up. He couldn’t change before leaving not if he didn’t want to blow his cover, but he could change when he got outside. “Thanks, Mr. Stark, night.”

He shuffled himself out the door, grabbing his backpack. Mr. Stark was shouting out again to him. “Remember, to use protection. We don’t want spider babies!”

Peter’s groan echoed down the hallway as he got into the elevator. 

~*~

Peter couldn’t tell what building Dodger was in when he got to the guy’s car. It was parked on a street lined with many small shops. He stood on the roof across the way, trying to see if he could see any of them on. It was late, most of the shops were already closed for the night. The only one that seemed open was a 24 hour laundromats.

Laundromats could double as drug location’s right? He’s definitely heard that one before. He swung across the street, landing on the laundromat’s sign. He lowered himself, upside down, off the edge of the sign, to get a clear view of the inside of the laundromat.

It was empty.

“Well, shit,” Peter said out loud. He went through all that embarrassment for nothing. The best thing he could do was sit and wait until Dodger came back to his car. Maybe he’d be able to catch him coming out of the building? He had an hour at the most to wait before he absolutely had to head home. He was pretty tired still and he couldn’t risk being late and having Mr. Stark tell May the lie he fed him. There’d be too many questions.

He sat upon the ledge of the laundromat’s sign. He was just about to swing back across the street when he saw Dodger walking around the corner, eating a sub. Maybe he hadn’t missed out on the deal after all. He ducked down a little, but Dodger didn’t seem to notice him, he was too busy shoving his sub into his mouth. When he passed Peter watched as he stopped two doors over, in front of an auto body repair shop.

There were three large garage doors, two of which were still closed, and then a small orange door with the words OFFICE above it. Peter watched as Dodger finished the last bite of his sub and then walked straight into the open garage door. Peter quickly crawled across the building. When he got to the shop, he lowered himself to the ground and walked towards the opened garage door. There were two cars parked out directly in front of the garage door, blocking other cars from going in and out. 

Peter made his way over to them, crouched low behind the car, and looked into the garage.

Dodger and three other guys were standing inside. Peter couldn’t believe how lucky he was, they weren’t even hiding in the building. He got a perfect view of the two other men. “Karen,” he said quietly, “try to get as much information as you can about this shop. Also, try to identify the two guys with Dodger.”

He couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying, but it hardly mattered. As long as he got some kind of footage it would be worth it. He waited, checking the time on his HUD frequently. He had to get going in 15 minutes if he had any hopes of getting home on time. 

Dodger took something from one of the guys, a backpack, and slung it over his shoulder. Do drugs get transported in a backpack? This would be a lot easier if Peter had any real idea as to how any of this really worked. Dodger took off out of the building rather quickly and Peter had to duck to make sure Dodger couldn’t see him. 

He waited until Dodger was far enough down the street before taking off again. He was just going to head back home but Dodger walked past his car and Peter hesitated. He got enough information now, didn’t he? What else was Dodger going to do? Maybe the backpack wasn’t the drugs?

Dodger was about to round the block’s corner when Peter made the decision to follow him again He made his way up and on the roof of the buildings, opting to stay off the ground. It was always easier for him to hide and move when he was up. He had less of a chance to be seen too. 

He watched Dodger make his way down the end of the block and across the street and into a two-story car park. Peter hesitated again, he should be heading back home now, but he had a sinking suspicion Dodger was going to sell drugs tonight. He could get more footage of it, maybe even stop him finally. 

He had lost sight of where Dodger went, there were a lot of cars parked on the level. He made his way inside slowly and carefully, trying to keep an eye out for where Dodger might have gone to. He didn’t see the guy anywhere, he might have headed up to the second story, or maybe even disappeared into a car.

He was about to give up and head out when his spider sense screamed at him.

He turned his head just in enough time to avoid Dodger’s fist. “Aye, Spider-man. Was wonderin’ when I could get the jump on ya.”

Peter dodged another attempt at a punch, this time catching Dodger’s fist in his hand. Dodger didn’t pull away, instead, he just grinned. “You’re not very good at the sneakin’ around part. Knew you were followin’ me for days now.” 

“Maybe I wanted you to know,” Peter said pushing Dodger’s arm back, making the man stumble backward. He laughed, a loud mocking laugh that made Peter annoyed. “What’s so funny?”

Dodger steadied himself and kept the smile on his face. He swung his fist out again, Peter went to catch it but Dodger surprised him and opened his fist. Powder went straight into Peter’s face. He saw it coming, his spider sense warned him to duck and move but Peter wasn’t fast enough. He got a face full of the powder again and started coughing. He stumbled backward, trying not to inhale any more than he already had.

“What?” Dodger said laughing as Peter landed on his knees, coughing as he inhaled more powder. “Thought ya might be interested in the product since you’ve been watchin’ me sell. Consider this one free of charge, courtesy of the Manfredi family. Enjoy your trip.”

Peter looked to see Dodger hovering over him, he gave Peter a messy salute before he walked away, leaving Peter still struggling on the ground. The powder was grainy and thick, it reminded him of ash and it felt like it was coating his lungs. “Karen?” He called out, hoping she’d know exactly what he was asking her. His throat felt rawr, just speaking the one word made him feel so much worse.

“You are inhaling large amounts of an unknown substance, Peter. I recommend that you contact Mr. Stark immediately.”

“No,” he choked out, breathing heavily. He needed to get the mask off but he was feeling a bit wobbly. He pushed himself to get up and move towards the back of the car park, away from the entrance. Dodger was long gone, he spared a glance around to make sure.

He ducked behind a car and pulled the mask off, coughing over and over again until his lungs burned even more. He had a bitter taste in his mouth, with a hint of metal. He spit onto the ground a few times and wished he had some water with him. He sat down on the ground, bringing his knees up to his chest, and tried to relax back into breathing normally.

He knew logically this was the time for him to call Mr. Stark, but he couldn't get himself to do it. Mr. Stark would be so angry at him, he lied to him and he got himself in a bad situation because of it. He would take the suit away for sure, maybe this time forever. 

He knew his metabolism would take care of it. He had experience with anesthesia in the past and none of them worked on him. He already had a small dose of the drug mix and he was fine, didn’t feel any of the symptoms described. He wasn’t feeling any side effects now either, the pain was from the taste and texture of the drug, not what it was doing to him. 

And this was a street drug, people took the drug for fun, it had to be okay for Peter to get exposed again.

He pulled the mask back on his face, Karen started talking right away.

“Peter, it’s in my protocols to contact Mr. Stark if you are in need of medical assistance.”

“I know, but can you just scan me real quick? My heart rate isn't high, I can breathe. I feel fine now. The powder was just really thick, that’s why I was coughing.”

Karen didn’t respond right away but she flashed up his vitals on the screen. Nothing came up in red. “Your vitals appear to be normal, Peter but I advise you to contact Mr. Stark. I do not know what substance was in the powder or the effects it may have on you.”

Peter sat up and looked around again, there was still no one around. “Thanks for the suggestion, Karen but I think I’d rather just go home.”

~*~

The hallway Peter was running down kept getting longer and longer the more he ran. He could see the end of it, that’s where May was standing, screaming out to him. The more Peter ran, the further he seemed to be getting from her. He moved faster, his body aching from the strain of running but it didn’t seem to make any difference.

Faster and faster, the hallway just kept expanding and expanding. His heart was stammering in his chest, his rib cage ached with the strain. He could barely breathe, it was a struggle to pull in enough oxygen to his lungs. He hadn’t felt like that since before the bite when he had asthma. His whole chest felt like it was constricting the more he ran, tightening up refusing to allow oxygen in.

His body ached, every step sent painful shockwaves from his feet up to his body. He could hear May screaming his name, just as loud no matter the distance between them.

“Peter!!”  Her voice bounced around his skull. “I’m coming!” He yelled out. “I’m coming!”

Her scream was terrifying, it sounded like someone was tearing her limb to limb. He couldn’t see anything, couldn’t tell what was happening anymore. The world was spinning, his vision was blacking out. The sound of his heart pumping, the blood rushing through his body was overtaking the sound of May screaming his name. 

“PETER!! PLEASE!!”

“I’m trying,” he choked out, words barely making it out of him. He tried to take a deep breath, tried to suck in as much air as he could but his body refused to corporate. He just kept running, his legs moving without any input from his brain, which screamed at them to stop. His stomach was revolting against him, nausea rolling over him. He gagged, but nothing came up and the pain in his stomach intensified. 

“PETER!” He felt like he was going to explode. He didn’t know what was going to go first, his heart breathing out of his chest or the loud voices pressuring in his skull.

“PETER!”

And then all at once, he stopped running and ripped his eyes open. He sat up in the bed, sweat pouring off him, his heart and lungs still battling as if he never stopped running. He felt someone’s hands on his shoulders and he turned his head and nausea rushed over him, he opened his mouth and vomited, half on himself and half on the bed.

“Jesus, Peter. You have to breathe, okay?” May said to him, he blinked at her. His brain was lagging still, his vision was getting spotty and he felt like closing his eyes and going back to sleep. 

“May,” he heard himself whine at her. His heart was beating fast still, his lungs ached with the need for more oxygen. He started to lay back down but May stopped him. “May,” he said again.

“I know Peter, I know. Just breath, okay?”

Peter nodded his head, his brain slowly starting to come back to him, his heart starting to slow, oxygen starting to fill his grateful lungs. He felt hot and sticky, the sharp smell of vomit started to fill his nose and he gagged for a second. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay baby, I just don’t want you to lie down and throw up again.”

He could feel May’s other hand around his wrist, taking his pulse. “That’s better,” she cooed. “Just keep breathing. Are you feeling okay?”

He could feel his body winding down. “M’fine.”

He heard a chuckle from May. She let go of his wrist and brought her hand up to his face. “You’re burning up still. Do you think you can make it to the bathroom? We should clean you up and try to cool you down a little.”

Peter nodded again. “Yeah, yeah.”

Before he got off the bed she helped him remove his vomit and sweat-soaked shirt. She maneuvered him out of the bed to avoid getting any messer. As he moved, his body started to adjust back into the real world some more. Despite everything being a dream, his body still felt like it had just run miles. His legs ached still and when he took the first two steps, he stumbled a little. 

May kept her hand on his elbow as they walked into the bathroom. She sat him down on the toilet seat and turned the faucet on. She grabbed a small towel, wetting it before using it to wipe Peter’s face off. He tried to reach for it, feeling stupid she had to do this to him, he wasn’t a sick little kid anymore.

“Let me,” she said softly. He put his hand down. “Were you feeling sick today? I didn’t think you looked bad when you got home from patrol.”

“No,” Peter said, “honestly, I think, I think it was just a nightmare.”

She frowned, pulling the cloth away and wetting it again. “That must have been some intense nightmare, Pete. Your heart was going so fast, I thought you were having a heart attack. I almost called Tony.”

“You didn’t right?” he asked quickly. It felt weird, how normal he felt now. The nightmare suddenly felt like it was ages ago. 

“No,” she said standing up. “Are you sure it was just a nightmare?”

“Yeah, promise,” he responded. “I was just, I was running and I couldn’t stop. I could feel my heart racing and it felt like I couldn’t even breathe anymore. Like when I had asthma.”

She put the back of her hand on his forehead again. “You don’t feel as hot. Are you sure that’s all it was?”

He thought for a second about mentioning the drugs but didn’t. She didn’t need to worry any more than she had been. He had read that Special K gave people nightmares, that’s all it had to be. The drug should be out of his system now too, the nightmare was just leftover.

“Yeah,” he said softly. “Thanks, May. I’m sorry you had to get up.”

“Don’t apologize, Peter. It’s completely fine. It’s almost 5:30, do you want to stay up? A shower might make you feel better. And if you don’t want to go into school today that’s fine too.”

“I’ll jump in the shower but,” a yawn escaped him while he was trying to talk, “I want to go to school.”

May hummed and then stood up. “Alright but if you’re not feeling well, call me or Tony. And maybe don’t patrol tonight?”

He was about to object but thought better of it. It wasn’t like he was going to go after Dodger anymore. He wanted to see if Karen could get him information on the Manfredi guys at the auto repair store. Despite Dodger finding him, he wasn’t going to let it go. It didn’t matter what Dodger or the Manfredi's knew. 

“Yeah, okay.”

She reached down and kissed the top of his head before leaving the bathroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me on [Tumblr](https://asyouleft.tumblr.com/) if ya fancy.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a far amount of swearing in this chapter. And Peter acting like a complete idiot.

When Peter told Ned about Dodger and the drugs, he thought his friend was the one who was going to have a heart attack. 

“Peter!” He hissed at him as they jogged lightly around the track outside. “What the hell, dude? You need to go to the hospital.”

“I’m fine,” Peter said and then yawned again. He was tired, the nightmare took a lot more out of him than he had thought. “Just got a nightmare, alright? I promised if it was bad I’d talk to Mr. Stark. All of this is manageable right now.”

“Getting drugged is not manageable!” Ned pressed on. “I know you think Mr. Stark will be mad but he’s gonna be really pissed if something happens to you.”

“Nothing will happen!” Peter insisted. “I checked WebMD this morning, by now the effects of the drugs should be out of my system. I feel fine otherwise.”

“Yeah I’m sure WebMD has that information about space drugs,” Ned said very seriously. “You can’t keep getting exposed to drugs like this. I’m pretty sure we saw a Captain America PSA that spelled this out very clearly.”

Peter laughed, which Ned didn’t look like he appreciated. “I won’t get exposed again. I’m not going after Dodger anymore. Karen is trying to figure out who was at the auto repair shop. Once I get that info, I just need to track down the lab. After that, I’ll tell Mr. Stark all about it.”

“Explain to me again your logic about why you just can't, tell Mr. Stark now? Because honestly, it’s pretty flawed.” Ned said, coming to a stop as they finished their lap. He leaned down, hands on his knees, breathing a little fast. Peter quickly mirrored his friend’s stance, acting as if he was really tired too. 

“I want him to see that he can trust me to handle things on my own and to know when I’m in over my head. I also want to give him not only the guy’s dealing the drugs but also the location of the lab.”

“Yeah, no, that’s super bad logic right now, dude. You’re going to make Mr. Stark proud of you by lying to him and not telling him when get drugged? I thought things were better between you two. Isn’t this just another Homecoming situation?”

Ned frowned and stood up, he crossed his arm over his chest and looked down at Peter, who stood up rather quickly too. He felt a little light-headed but managed to keep himself from swaying. More students were stopping near them now, including Michelle, who Peter could tell was listening in on them. He stepped closer to Ned, hoping to keep their conversation private.

“I know it seems like that, okay? But it’s not. I was stupid before, I just really wanted to impress him and I thought I could handle it. This time, I know I can’t take down… the whole thing myself,” he said avoiding using any specific names in case someone heard him. “I want to give him concrete evidence and information, so he’ll have to take me seriously. And I just won’t ever have to tell him I accidentally took the drugs too. He’ll never even have to know about it.”

“Isn’t Mr. Stark giving you the suit proof enough that he believes in you?” Ned questioned, his voice was low but Peter could still sense the unease. He felt bad, he didn’t want to worry Ned like this but he did see where his friend was coming from. Maybe he was right that Mr. Stark trusted him now, but he still wanted to do this. 

Peter shrugged. “I know, I know. You’re right. Can I just wait until Karen gives me some information on the two guys with Dodger? That way I can give them names of people and then I’ll come clean with it all.”

“I can’t make you do something and I’m not going to go behind your back and tell on you,” Ned said quickly just as Coach Wilson blew the whistle, shouting for everyone to head back inside. “Just don’t do anything stupid.”

“I promise,” Peter said as they walked in.

Ned didn’t look like he believed him, but he didn’t bring it up again for the rest of the day.

~*~

The room Peter was standing in was completely void of any light. He could see what he thought were walls of pure black surrounding him. He moved, running his hands along the walls, looking for some way out. There had to be a door, a window, something. 

He tried to climb the walls, but he couldn’t. His hands no longer stuck to the walls, instead, they slid down, giving him nowhere to go.

And then the walls started to move in. It took him a minute to realize what was happening, it was so dark he couldn’t see much but he could feel it. The room was getting smaller by the second. All four walls were coming in on him and then, to his horror, he could see the ceiling coming down too.

“HELP!” He shouted as loud as he could but his voice wasn’t loud enough. He couldn’t force the sounds out of his mouth. “HELP ME PLEASE!” 

The darkness came closer and closer, Peter dropped to his knees and slammed his fists against the floor. He pounded hard, screaming for help, for someone to help him.

The walls came closer and closer and - Peter’s eyes opened and he sat up in bed, moving his arms out into the darkness as if to make sure there was room for them. He took in a few deep breaths as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. 

He was getting used to waking up like this, ever since Dodger exposed him to the drugs, he’d had bad dreams each night. He was always suffering in them, trapped, drowning, on fire, lost, scared and he always woke up with his heart racing and gasping in the air. Whatever was happening to him in the dream, seemed to always linger a little longer into the day time. 

It was making him more and more tired, it didn’t seem to matter how much sleep he got, the nightmare made it feel like he was running on very little. Thankfully May hadn’t needed to wake him up again, although she did ask him about it the night before. He shrugged it off, told her it was just a bad dream again.

He knew the nightmares were linked with the drugs, there was no way they just suddenly got worse on their own. He’d gone to Ricky again and casually asked him about Special K side effects and if he’d heard anything from people using it. 

“Why you askin’?” Ricky had asked him in leu of an answer, he eyed Peter, looking him over. “Having problems?”

“Uh, no,” Peter said nervously, “I’m just trying to get an idea of what’s going on, that’s all.”

Ricky shrugged. “Special K gives some people nightmares, it’s a tranq but it can mess with your head. Haven’t heard much else about the other stuff. People seem to like it, I’ll tell you that.”

Peter nodded and tried to remain nonchalant about the whole thing. He didn’t want Ricky to know he’d gotten dosed by the stuff twice so far.

“Thanks for everything,” Peter added. “You’ve been helpful.”

“Of course, anything for your Webs! It’s too bad Dodger got caught by ya though. He’s in the wind now, for sure.”

“How’d you know Dodger saw me?”

Ricky shrugged his shoulders. “News gets around. Spider-man out there tryin’ to bust drug dealers. Might have scared off a few others.”

Peter was glad he was wearing a mask, the grin on his face was way too ridiculously. Peter wanted to help people and one less space drug dealer on the streets was a win in his book.

“Oh, cool,” he said and then realized just how young that made him sound. He cleared his throat and tried to put back on his adult voice. “Keep me updated if you hear anything else, okay?”

“Yeah sure, just be safe out there, Webs. Don’t know what we’d do without our friendly neighborhood Spider-man.”

~*~

Peter wasn’t trying to fall asleep on Mr. Stark, but he was increasingly more tired the longer he sat on the couch, watching TV. The second he walked into the lab, Mr. Stark took one look at his face and pushed him back out the door and into the living room. He had skipped out on patrol the night before, opting instead to hang out with Ned. 

He let his mind wander as he laid on the couch. He hadn’t had much to do about the drug situation, Karen was busy trying to find information for him on the two guys, she’d been able to identify only one of them but it wasn’t all that helpful to just know the guy’s name. He needed to figure out where the drugs were being made and maybe even, how they were getting space drugs to begin with.

Peter wasn’t even sure the drugs were from space still. He had a small sample left, the one he showed Ricky, but he had nowhere to go with it. It wasn’t he could call someone up and ask them, maybe someone at SHIELD but he wasn’t about to try that one.

He wasn’t too concerned about Dodger either. He hadn’t seen heads or tails of the guy since he saw Peter. He hoped Ricky was right about being in the wind. Dodger must have been wiser to the tracker, it stopped transmitting soon after the altercation in the parking garage. Peter didn’t bother to try again, now that he had some idea as to how to find the Manfredis. 

Peter closed his eyes without thinking and before he knew it he was dreaming. He was in his Spider-man suit, swinging around the city. He knew he was being chased by someone and when he finally turned around Iron Man was flying behind him.

Except it wasn’t any Iron Man armor Peter had seen before. It was white, with glowing blue highlights. It was almost moving faster than Peter could and after a second, the suit overtook him. Iron Man grabbed him around the middle, pulling Peter who tried desperately to hold on to the webbing in his hands. The thrusters on the suit increased speed and Peter was forced to let go and allow Iron Man to carry him before he dropped him onto a rooftop.

Peter landed a little less than gracefully and tried to turn and run, but found himself suddenly trapped, as the walls of the building came together above him, caging him in with the Iron Man. He turned around quickly, watched as Iron Man came at him.

“Mr. Stark,” he said, backing up and slamming against the wall. He went to shoot out a web but nothing came out and in the blink of an eye he was back in his normal clothing. “Please don’t hurt me.”

Iron Man came closer until he was practically standing nose to nose with Peter. The suit he wore melted off him like it was pure liquid. It left behind a grinning Tony Stark. 

“I wanted you to be better, Peter,” he said, and then in a heartbeat, Tony was punching him, hard in the face and then again. Peter tried to defend himself, but he couldn’t seem to catch a break. “You’re just making the same mistakes over and over again.” Tony continued to berate him, as he punched him over and over relentingly.

“Please,” Peter cried out, covering his face with his hands. He closed his eyes, unable to look at what his mentor was doing to him. “Please, I’m sorry. I’m so, so, sorry, please.”

Peter felt himself go down hard, on the ground. He felt Tony’s hands on him again and Peter took a wild swing.

“Stop! Same side, same side!”

He froze and suddenly realized he was awake and sitting on the floor in the living room of Mr. Stark’s penthouse. His eyes darted around the room, breathing heavily. Mr. Stark was on his knees in front of him, his nose bleeding.

“Mr. Stark?” Peter said softly and then after swallowing he tried again.

“Yeah kid,” Mr. Stark said, he used his shirt to wipe the blood from his nose. “It’s me. Are you alright?”

“Did I hurt you?” Peter said scrambling up to his feet. It was pretty clear that Peter had hit Mr. Stark at some point. “I’m so sorry.”

“Hey,” Mr. Stark held up his hand when Peter advanced and he worried that Mr. Stark was now scared of him. “It’s alright. You need to take a few deep breaths and calm down there, kid. You were freaking out pretty badly.”

Peter leaned back down on the ground and tried to do just that. His heart was still racing wildly but he was starting to come down from the nightmare. It had been different from the others, they seemed to draw from Peter’s personal experiences but this one, this one was completely new. He had never been scared of Iron Man or Mr. Stark for that matter and he knew he would never actually hurt him.

Mr. Stark got up on his feet. “I’m going to get something for this,” he gestured to his nose, “and some water for you. Get back up on the couch if you can.”

Mr. Stark left the room and Peter pulled himself back up and onto the couch. He checked the time, he’d been sleeping for almost an hour. Happy would be taking him home in another one. He had the feeling Mr. Stark was going to want to talk about this. 

A minute later Mr. Stark was back in the room, holding a washcloth to his nose and carrying Peter over a bottle of water. He took it and drank it down quickly, finishing it all in one go.

“Thirsty?” Mr. Stark questioned as he pulled away from the washcloth. His nose had stopped bleeding, but it was quickly becoming black and blue. Peter made a face and when Mr. Stark noticed he shook his head. “It’s not bad, kid. You didn’t get me full force either. Just an elbow to the nose when you were falling around. I don’t even think it’s broken.”

Peter nodded and looked down at his lap. “I’m still sorry about it.” They were both silent and Peter realized Mr. Stark was waiting for him to bring it up. “I had a nightmare.”

“That I gathered,” Mr. Stark answered. Peter couldn’t look up and over at him, feeling terrible still about hurting him. “Want to talk about it?”

“Not particularly,” Peter answered truthfully. He was walking a very thin line, he realized, with just how much to tell Mr. Stark. Like with Ned, he didn’t want to tell the whole truth, just enough of it to get by. It was clear by the look on his face, that Mr. Stark was expecting Peter to at least provide some information.

“Is this why you’ve been tired lately?” Mr. Stark questioned. “Have you been getting a lot of them?”

Peter shrugged. “I guess,” and then he made up his mind, half-truths it was. “I have been getting them a few nights a week. It’s been, it’s been making it hard to sleep.” 

He spared a look up at Mr. Stark, who was studying him very intently, the same type of look he gave when he was trying to figure something out. Had this been a year ago, before Homecoming happened, Peter might have felt insulted by the look. But now he knew Mr. Stark was just worried about him, he was just trying to figure out what to say and how to help. 

“As bad as this one?” Mr. Stark finally asked him.

“Sometimes, but not always,” he said and then looked up at him. “I used to get them often when I was a kid after my parents died. I’m pretty used to them now but uh, yeah they’ve been kinda intense lately. I woke up May a few days ago.”

“Has something changed lately?”

Peter had to look back down to avoid giving anything away. He wasn’t a terrible liar but he knew the blushing and stuttering he did sometimes gave him away. Instead, he addressed his hands. “Not really but honestly, they have been getting a little intense since the whole Vulture thing.”

Peter wasn’t lying, while he had them before, after Vulture they got a lot more intense. Mr. Stark didn’t know a lot about what happened, not enough.

“Is that what you were dreaming about now? You were scared of something, kept saying no please and when I went to grab you, you started lashing out. That’s how you landed on the ground too.”

“No, surprisingly Vulture was not the bad guy tonight,” he paused and wondered if maybe pivoting to what happened at Homecoming might help get away from the more current situation. There was no way Peter was going to tell Mr. Stark it was him that was hurting him, he wasn’t about to open that can of worms for anything in the world. “It was nothing, just uh, you know, a faceless bad guy.”

When Peter looked up again, just to show Mr. Stark he wasn’t lying (even though he was), Mr. Stark was giving him the same look of both worry and a little annoyance. Like he really couldn’t figure out the puzzle that is Peter Parker. 

“You don’t have to deal with these things by yourself,” Mr. Stark offered. “If it’s starting to affect your daily life, especially when you’re out Spider-manning, it might be worth talking to someone about it.”

“Like therapy? I did that, uh, when my parents died for a bit. I still had a nightmare and stuff. I think it’s just part of how my brain deals with the weird and scary things that happen to me. Mr. Stark, I’m fine.”

“After the battle of New York, I had nightmares too. About flying the bomb up into space and, well, all the other shit that happened. You need to find a healthy way of dealing with things.”

“It’s not that bad, Mr. Stark, I promise. It’s nothing compared to what you went through.”

“It’s not a competition, Pete. Trauma is trauma, it doesn’t matter what it is. If it gives you nightmares then you should try and talk about it.”

Peter immediately felt a whole lot worse than before. Mr. Stark was being nice to him, trying to connect and Peter was feeding him a lot of lies just because of stupid pride. He almost caved about the whole drug thing, but he was so close he could taste it. 

He might as well tell him about Homecoming, it was going to happen one day anyway. “So uh, actually well,” Peter tried and then didn’t know where to start at. “So you know the father of my Homecoming date was the guy who tried to steal your plane?”

“I’m aware of that particular detail, yes.”

“Well, some stuff happened before the whole plane thing happened. Some stuff that I’ve um, just not told you?”

“Is that a question?” Mr. Stark asked he looked a little more annoyed than before, a little less caring. “What haven’t you told me, Pete?”

“He sort of kinda threatened me with a gun and then later, dropped an entire building on my head.”

The silence was a lot. Peter wished he would have told Mr. Stark about the drugs instead. He’d at least know Mr. Stark would be a little bit mad at him, maybe. He didn’t know how Mr. Stark felt about him now. He just looked at Peter with a blank face, the washcloth still sitting in his hands.

“Um,” Peter said, eloquently as ever.

“Shit, kid. I wish you would have told me about this. How the hell did you survive? You didn’t have the suit did you?”

“Yeah, I was in my uh, original suit. And yeah, well, I kinda just lifted it off me? I don’t know either, to be honest. I didn’t have time to think about it, I had to worry about the plane stuff.”

“Jesus, Peter. You should have said something, you could have died! And it would have been on me then too!”

“Mr. Stark,” Peter said, feeling stupider by the second. “It’s okay. I’m fine, the nightmares aren’t that bad anymore… I’m just stressed from school and Spider-man stuff, it just makes it easier for them to happen.”

Mr. Stark looked like he wanted to speak again, but FRIDAY jumped in before he could. “Mr. Hogan has arrived to return Peter Parker to where he belongs, Boss.”

Mr. Stark looked as if he was about to say something but Peter was already up and off the couch. “Thank you, Mr. Stark. Sorry about the nose again, I’ll be fine. If I’m not, I, uh, I’ll let you know?”

He left the room quickly, he wasn’t about to look the perfect escape in the mouth.

~*~

That night Peter dreamed he was stuck in quicksand. It started pulling him in as he stood, unable to move. He screamed and cried out, there were people all around him, Ned, May, Mr. Stark… but no one made any effort to try and grab him.

The sand was almost up to his neck by the time he woke. He heaved in bed, desperately trying to catch his breath.

The feeling of something weighing down his chest didn’t go away, it just made Peter feel a lot more tired and run down than he had been even earlier. 

While the nightmares were still just that - nightmares, the after-effects were seemingly lasting a lot longer each day. He didn’t expect to wake up feeling refreshed and ready to go, but he didn’t expect the feelings to continue to linger with him.

“Dude, I know I say this all the time but Pete, you look like shit. Like worse than I’ve ever seen you,” Ned whispered to him, as he sat down next to Peter in Biology.

“Hmph,” Peter replied, barely lifting his head over the arm he was laying it on. He felt like shit, his entire body felt like shit. If he could he would lay on the floor and sleep until the end of time. “Barely slept.”

“I know you don't want to but you need to tell Mr. Stark what’s happening,” Ned said in a hushed tone. Peter felt his hand touch the top of Peter’s head. “You’re really warm again dude.”

“Almost got this,” Peter mumbled. “S’just nightmares. I can handle them.”

Ned made a disappointing sound but moved his hand to Peter’s shoulder. “I’m just worried about you, dude.”

Peter lifted his head and sat back to look at Ned. Peter regretted it immediately because once Ned saw him, his face looked a lot more concerned. Peter quickly started talking before Ned could. “I know, I know. I’m fine. It just gave me shitty nightmares and I had like two hours of sleep last night.”

“You know people die from lack of sleep! And,” Ned added. “You can die from space drugs!”

“But I’m different,” Peter insisted, "My metabolism will take care of it. I honestly have no symptoms. All this,” he gestured to his face, “is the lack of sleep.”

Ned snorted. “Your excuses Peter are expert level sometimes.”

Peter didn’t know if he should take it as a compliment or not. 

~*~

Peter caught wind about the deaths from the news. May had been watching it when he got home from school and he caught only the end of the newscaster's story.

“And the drug is currently unknown but police are working on finding their origins.”

“Oh,” Peter said before he could stop himself and turned to look at May. “What was that about?”

“Hm?” May asked, turning to him. “The news story?”

“Yeah, about the drugs,” Peter responded, he walked back to the couch and sat down next to May. He tossed his book bag onto the floor.

“Why are you so interested?” May questioned, raising her eyebrows at him. Peter tried hard not to look too suspicious but May just laughed after a second. “Don’t worry, I don’t think you’re doing the drugs, Petey. I guess there’s a new street drug going around, two young people died from it this week.”

“Oh, that’s… that’s terrible,” Peter said softly. He knew it was the space drug, he had no doubt. “And they said it was an unknown drug?”

“Yes, that’s what the reporter said. This isn’t something Spider-man is handling, is it? Because I don’t want you dealing with this type of thing, Peter. It’s very dangerous to get mixed up in drug dealers.”

“No,” Peter said, lying. “I’m just thinking about Ricky, that’s all. The guy I got into rehab, we were talking about last week and he mentioned a new street drug out there. He said it wasn’t deadly, so I’m just surprised that’s all.” He let out a yawn without wanting to.

“You just be careful out there,” May and then she grabbed the remote and flipped it to another station. “What do you want for dinner tonight?”

Peter tried to play everything off but his mind was racing back to the space drug. He didn’t care so much about himself but now it was even more urgent that he find the lab.

~*~

After dinner, he excused himself into his room. He didn’t patrol often on Wednesday nights, it was usually reserved for dinner and homework, but he asked May for an expectation, telling her he wanted to talk to Ricky about the drugs. She didn’t seem suspicious, which made him feel all the worse for lying to her.

He knew his plan was stupid but the deaths of the two guys were weighing way too heavily on his mind. The more time he wasted, the more people out there who could die. So he decided he’d head back to the autobody shop and figure it out from there. It was less of a plan and more of a stupid rash decision that he couldn’t keep himself from making even if he tried.

It took him almost a half hour to make his way back to the shop. Instead of waiting among the cars, he landed on the roof across the way. He could see all of the front doors from his viewpoint, but not inside of them. He just needed to get lucky again, someone just had to come out and he could figure it out from there. He’d worked a lot on the integration part of his job, he could always try and grab someone to question them.

He had Karen scan the building, she told him there were four people inside still but not much else. He watched the tiny heat signatures stay in the same area of the map from his HUD. The logical part of his brain was telling him to just leave and go home already. 

“Karen,” he said, checking the time, “set a 45-minute timer.”

He’d wait 45 minutes and if nothing happened, he’d go home and tomorrow he’d talk to Mr. Stark about it.

After 35 minutes went by and nothing happened, he was starting to regret setting the timer. He didn’t want to give up but he made himself a promise, he had to keep it. Just as if they knew he was ready to give up, two people came out of the front door. He couldn’t tell right away if they were the same two that spoke to Dodger but it was better than nothing.

He watched three of them walk to a car only to stand outside and chat. Peter hated it when criminals got chatty with each other instead of doing whatever bad thing they were going to do. After a few minutes, all three of them dispersed into two different cars. 

He had to make a decision, follow the car guy and hope he leads Peter to the lab or go inside and integrate the lone guy left in there. Peter could still see his one heat signature on the map Karen had provided him.

He decided he’d have better luck with integration tactics. He waited until both cars were gone before swinging down in front of the building. The three large garage doors were closed this time as well as the yellow door between them. According to the map, the guy was in a room off of one of the garages. He could get to it by going through the yellow door and down a hallway.

Using his strength, he broke the doorknob and, as quietly as he could, made his way inside. The hallway was dark but he followed along with the map until he reached the entrance into the garage. He looked inside, the room the guy was in had several glass windows. He could see the guy standing around. 

Peter made his way into the garage, moving alongside the wall. He made it to the entrance into the side room. There wasn’t a door, but an open entrance. He couldn't see very well, but the guy seemed to have his back to it. 

He counted down from five in his head, took a deep breath, and then walked into the room.

“Hey,” Peter said, the guy jerked around in his chair very quickly. Peter didn’t recognize him. “Got a second?”

“What the fuck?” The guy said, he looked scared but then as if he realized what he was seeing, laughed. 

“Um,” Peter said, not quite sure how to respond to laughter. He shot out two webs connecting both of the guy’s wrists to the table he sat in front of. It was an awkward angle, but it worked to keep him secure. 

“What the fuck?” He said again as his webs landed on the target. He started to fight the webbing and pull himself away from the table. “What did you just do to me?”

“Nothing,” Peter answered and then cleared his throat. He wasn’t willing to do integration mode with Karen again, mostly since it might tip off Tony. “I need you to answer some questions.”

“You first,” the guy spat, “what the fuck are you and what the fuck did you just hit me with?”

“I’m Spider-man,” Peter answered and then regretted doing so, he didn’t want to give the guy the upper hand. “I need you to tell me the location of where you’re making the space drugs.”

The guy laughed, a high pitched whiny laugh, which ended in a snort. “I think you’re on some kind of drug you spandex freak.”

“It's not spandex,” Peter mumbled and then cleared his throat again, this time louder, and tried talking with a deeper voice. “I know what you’re selling on the street, the stuff you combined with the Special K.”

The guy snorted again. “Uh, I don’t know what kind of drugs you’re on but we ain’t dealing with no space drugs.”

“Oh.”

Out of all the things the guy could have said, this threw Peter off the most. “Are you sure?” He questioned and immediately felt like the biggest idiot in the world. He tried to stand up straighter and somehow look more intimidating but the guy he had webbed up just laughed even harder.

“Fuck yes I’m sure. I think you’re the fucker on some kind of space drug. Comin’ in here dressed like a figure skater shooting me with sticky white shit.”

Peter frowned under the mask, glad the guy couldn’t see it. “What about Dodger? You’re supplying him drugs aren’t you?”

“I don’t think I need to answer your questions. If ya want drugs to go find Dodger, he’s got supplies from everywhere. You don’t need to bother me for this shit.”

Peter knew this was going downhill and quickly. The guy was still struggling against the webs. Peter knew they’d keep him there, he didn’t have to worry about that guy going anywhere.

What he did need to worry about was the other guy who just came back into the garage. Peter heard him first, turning to look into the large garage, to see another guy walking back in.

The guy at the desk must have figured someone came in because he cleared his throat and yelled out. “HEY JOEY IS THAT YOU? GET IN HERE.”

Things went downhill a lot faster after that. 

It must have been Joey because the guy started walking towards the door. 

“SOME FREAK IS IN HERE-” The guy yelled out and Peter quickly shot a web out to cover his mouth. He jumped to the ceiling, trying to get out of view. Of course, it didn't matter. Joey either heard the yelling or he noticed Peter.

He had a gun out when he came closer and Peter scrambled out of the doorway from the ceiling, going over the guy’s head. He was taken by surprise, thankfully not having time to shoot off his gun. But it didn’t take him long to recover and get off a shot.

Peter’s spider-sense went off and he moved to avoid the bullet. Just as he got closer to his escape, his spider-sense screamed at him again, just as another guy came walking back through the door.

The two gunmen were now shouting at Peter, as he clung onto the ceiling. “Karen, get me out of here.”

“Your best escape is to go out the garage door. You should be able to break through the glass at the top part.”

Peter moved, gunshots echoed behind him and he made it to the glass door. He kicked it with one foot and just as Karen suggested, the glass broke. Peter had almost made his way out completely but a bullet managed to hit him smack in the shoulder. The pain was so sudden and intense, he let go of the ceiling, slipping out of the window and falling onto the street on the other side of the garage door. The whole thing was not very graceful. Peter let out a grunt of pain when he landed, his hand going to his shoulder. 

“Peter I would suggest you exit the area immediately. I have contacted Mr. Stark and he is aware of the situation.”

Peter got up on his feet, wobbled a bit, and then started jogging away. He couldn’t swing with his shoulder in the state it was in. The garage door started to open and Peter stumbled forward, finally getting his feet under him.

“Shit, shit, shit,” he mumbled as he kept going, the two men were still behind him, shouting out at him. 

He had to make another decision, this time he knew it was stupid going into it. He shot a web up and then, with both arms, pulled himself up on the roof. He held on with his bad arm as long as he could, letting go just as he made it. He landed hard on his behind, hands immediately going back to his shoulder. It was bleeding something awful, the blood was getting everywhere.

“I’mma lie down now, Karen,” he said a little breathlessly, he laid back on the hard cement of the rooftop and closed his eyes. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why I think it's funny but in my mind there are some criminals Peter busts who have no idea who Spider-man is and are like wtf is that thing on the ceiling in spandex? And Peter is all offended that he isn't ~known~.


	4. Chapter 4

When Peter opened his eyes he was looking up into the familiar ceiling of the Tower’s medical room. The off white color always bothered Peter just a little, it wasn't a normal off white, eggshell white, or even an ivory white. He frequently thought about asking Mr. Stark what color it was but he never found the right opportunity to bring it up. 

He struggled for several minutes to try and remember why he was there. Blinking a few times before the fog in his brain finally started to clear out a little. 

“Good morning sunshine.”

Peter sat up and winced a little, he looked down and saw a bandage wrapped tightly around his middle. Ah yes, he got shot running away from mobsters.

It took him a second to realize that Mr. Stark and May were standing on either side of Peter’s bed. The look on both of their faces gave him the sinking suspicion he was in trouble.

“So, how long have you been doing drugs, Peter? And why on Earth were you going after Manfredi's?”

Peter winched.

“Peter, hunny,” May said and he looked over to her. She was smiling her tight smile, the one she gave him when she knew Peter did something wrong, she was just waiting for him to come clean about it. 

“No drugs,” Peter said, his voice coming out a little rough and scratchy. “Well, I mean maybe I accidentally was exposed to space drugs.”

“I’m sorry, did you just say space drugs?” Mr. Stark said with amusement but still sounding fairly annoyed.

“Hmmhmm,” Peter said. He was in some pain, as he started to wake up more. His stomach hurt and his head was feeling a bit off still. “Long story.”

“Peter,” May said again. “We’d really appreciate it if you’d talk to us about the drugs now. We’re both very concerned right now.”

“Okay,” Peter said, he closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them again. The room was less fuzzy, he knew he had to get the whole story out sooner rather than later. He didn't want either of them to think he was doing drugs on purpose. 

He told them the entire story, from accidentally winding up at the drug bust, to getting hit twice with the unknown space drug and up until he passed out after raiding the mobsters. While he didn’t go into great detail about the nightmares, he told them how they kept him up, and even if he did sleep, he was still tired. 

When he finished, it took a lot for him to even look at either of them. He could just feel their disappointment mixed with anger too. Talking about everything that happened out loud just made him feel more embarrassed than anything else.

“This whole thing was very, very stupid Peter,” May started. “You should have told us the second you got exposed to unknown drugs and that’s just the tip of it. You never should have gone after any of those men on your own. What were you thinking?”

“I know,” Peter said. “I wasn’t thinking.”

“Damn right you weren't thinking,” Mr. Stark added. “You got exposed twice and you didn't tell anyone either time? Even after you were experiencing obvious symptoms? And you lied to me about the nightmares too. I thought we were past all this.”

“We are!” Peter interjected, he moved a little, putting pressure down on his arm to shift himself up. The pain was immediate and he leaned back down in bed. 

“Stay still,” May scolded him but there wasn’t a lot of heat in her voice anymore. 

“We are past it,” Peter continued, voice a little softer. “I just wanted to show you that I could handle something like this. I have everything you need to take them down, I just wanted to make sure I found where the lab was and if it really was space drugs.”

Both of the two adults were silent, Peter still kept his gaze down and focused on his lap. The tiredness was rolling through him again. “Am I gonna be okay?” He asked suddenly, into the silence. “I thought drugs weren’t supposed to stay in my system for long? How’d you know I’d been exposed?”

“It showed up in your blood work. We don’t know what’s going on,” Mr. Stark said, and then when Peter tensed up he backtracked. “You’re fine for now. What we don’t know is why you’re still showing the drugs in your system. They found traces of an unknown substance along with ketamine. And your shoulder will be fine, the bullet has been removed and your healing has taken care of most of it.”

“That’s what the space drug is laced with, Special K. That’s all I know. I’m sorry, I realize I messed up with this. I should have come to you sooner… I just wanted you to, you know, trust me and think I can do things.”

“Peter,” Mr. Stark started, but May surprisingly cut him off.

“Peter, if you want any of us to trust you, you need to stop being stupid about things. Stop acting like you are the only one capable of handling things.”

Peter hated disappointing May more than Mr. Stark any day. “I’m an idiot and I’m sorry,” Peter said, he let out a yawn.

May leaned down and kissed the top of his head. “I know and I love you. We’ll talk about this more later when you’re feeling better.”

Peter spared a look over at Mr. Stark who let out a sigh. “Get some rest. May’s right, we’ll be talking a whole lot more about this when you’re feeling up to it.”

~*~

The next conversation Peter had was with Dr. Reed, Dr. Cho, Mr. Stark, and May, about the possible side effects he was feeling from the exposure to the space drug. Dr. Reed, Peter found out, was a clinical pharmaceutical scientist who they had to call in once they discovered the unknown drug mixed with ketamine. Before they came in, however, Peter was subjected to a fair amount of tests, including several body scans and blood tests. 

He made the decision not to complain too much, he knew he got himself into the mess, he deserved to be a science experiment for a little longer.

When everyone did come into the room, they started by asking Peter what he knew about the drug. Peter shared again, the little information he had as well as his thoughts on the nightmares being connected to the drugs. 

“We’ve looked at the levels of both drugs in Peter’s system and they do appear to be going down. We still don’t know the drug is sticking around, it could be several things especially since we know very little about the origins or manufacturing of the drug,” Dr. Reed explained after Peter had finished talking.

“Is he going to be okay? Can he come home yet?” May asked.

“Aside from the nightmares, he appears to be fine. I’d like for him to stay here at the tower for a few more nights, we can do a sleep study to see what type of brain activity happens when he gets nightmares. It can help clue us in on how the drug is working.”

May agreed and the next night Peter was hooked up to several large machines. He sat in the med room bed, in comfortable PJs May had brought from home, along with his pillow too. Dr. Reed said it was best for Peter to be as comfortable as possible. He didn’t think that was going to happen, not with several electrodes stuck to his head. They had even brought in a brain specialist to look over the results. Peter felt a little silly about the whole thing, he didn’t want everyone to have to worry this much about him.

May was staying overnight as well but she got to sleep in one of the Tower’s actual rooms. Peter might have been a little jealous and he might have told her that too.

“People who don’t get exposed to space drugs without telling anyone get to sleep in nice California King size beds,” she said to him before kissing the top of his head. 

He sighed and then before she left he spoke up again. “Are you sure this is all necessary? I feel really stupid having everyone work so hard just because of some nightmares.”

“Of course it is. We want to make sure you’re okay and even if it is just nightmares, none of us want you to suffer as badly as you have been.”

“Even if it’s all my fault?” He said softly, he looked away from her. He felt her reach out her hand and cup the side of his face.

“That doesn’t matter one bit, baby and you know it. Try and get some sleep, alright? I love you very much.”

“Okay, love you too May.”

She left and a minute or so later some of the nurses came in to finish hooking Peter up. They gave him some water and made him put away his phone for the rest of the night. Feeling weird and somewhat embarrassed, Peter got under the covers, it took some time but he finally fell asleep.

~*~

He was falling.

It wasn’t fast like it had been when the Vulture dropped him. This was different, he was falling slowly, towards the ground. He was facing the sky, a dark black with the stars twinkling above. He knew he was falling, he could feel it, the air rushing past him ever so softly. He tried to reach up, he was wearing his web-shooters, he shot them up, nothing happened. The webs flew up but without anything to latch onto, he caught on nothing.

He just kept falling, the air tickling the back of his neck as he went down. He blinked once, twice, and then suddenly something was over him. It looked like the Vulture for a second, but then it got closer and Peter saw Iron Man, arms outstretched, reaching for him.

Peter reached his arms up too. “Tony!” He shouted. “Tony grab me!”

But as soon as Iron Man moved faster, Peter began to fall faster too. He shot his webs out again, but they didn’t connect. Iron Man picked up speed and so did Peter’s falling. “Please!” He yelled, feeling terror crawling over his skin. “Tony, please!”

Their fingertips brushed each other once, Peter could almost feel the metal against his gloved hands, but they didn’t connect. Instead, Peter went faster, the air almost painfully hitting his back. He cried out again, he wasn’t looking at the ground, but he knew he was close now.

Iron Man stopped racing for him and hovered in the air, but Peter didn’t stop falling. “Please, help me, Tony!”

“Kid!” He heard coming from above him, but not from the Iron Man floating. Peter’s heart was racing, his breathing labored and he knew he was dreaming again. He tried so hard to pull himself out but it wasn’t working. He blinked his eyes, cried out, and even reached over and pinched his arm, but nothing.

“Tony!” He shouted again and then he hit the water. It felt like a million shards of glass were embedding themselves into his skin. All the air in his lungs rushed out and he could feel himself sucking in water instead. His limbs were too heavy from the impact, he could barely move them around.

He tried to open his mouth and scream but nothing happened, he just gulped in large amounts of water, making him cough.

He could feel his body giving up before an odd pinching sensation in his arm and then, a weird feeling of something flooding his veins and then, nothing at all.

~*~

When he opened his eyes for real, he was laying in the same bed as before, but all of the equipment was gone. Mr. Stark was sitting at the chair next to him, head lolled to the side, apparently asleep. Peter looked over at the clock on the wall, squinting in the darkroom. It was 6 am, he’d gone to bed around 8:00 pm. 

Even with the nightmare, it was one of the longest nights of sleep he’d had. He tried to sit up in the bed without making too much noise, but he made enough that Mr. Stark’s eyes opened up.

“Kid,” he said a little breathlessly. “How are you feeling?”

“Uh,” Peter said, “a little embarrassed, but uh, okay I guess. I remember the nightmare I had but nothing else. What happened?”

“You scared the shit out of everyone, that’s what. You were screaming so loud, Pete. And your heart rate skyrocketed. Thought you were going into cardiac arrest at one point, it wasn’t good.”

“Oh,” Peter said a little dumbly. 

“May and I tried to wake you but you weren’t waking up fast enough. Dr. Cho didn’t want to, but she ended up sedating you.”

“That’s why I slept so long?”

“Yeah. You didn’t have another nightmare?”

He shook his head. “No, it was dreamless. Did they at least get any results?”

Mr. Stark hesitated for a fraction of a second before getting up. “Let me get your army of doctors and May in here. We can all talk about this together.”

He disappeared out of the room and Peter reached over for the water on the bedside table. Whatever happened must have been pretty bad if they sedated him. He grabbed his phone and started to check his email and messages. A minute later Dr. Moore, the neurologists, Dr. Reed and Dr. Cho came in with May and Mr. Stark flanking behind them. Watching them all march in, Peter had a sense of foreboding. 

May came over and hugged him, Peter scooched over and May sat down next to him on the bed. “Hi baby, are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah, I feel fine but I guess last night was kinda intense.”

Dr. Moore made an amused sound but she smiled at him. “I would say that’s an understatement. We only had one night of tests to look at but the results were interesting. Do you mind sharing with us what your dream was about?”

Peter nodded and shared the dream, which was still crystal clear in his mind. He described the falling, the reaching, and finally landing in the water. When he finished Dr. Moore nodded her head.

“Are you familiar with lucid dreaming, Peter?” she asked him.

“Not really,” he answered. He looked to May and Mr. Stark, it was clear they had already heard this before he did.

“Lucid dreaming happens in between REM sleep and wakefulness. You’re able to not only recognize you’re dreaming but also have some element of control in said dream. They aren’t very common and not a lot is known about how they work.”

“I didn’t have any control over anything that happened in my dreams. I mean I could still do stuff and I knew I was dreaming from the start, but I couldn’t make anything change.”

“That’s where we think the drug has potentially come in,” Dr. Reed added. “We think the ketamine does a good job of keeping you sedated enough. The unknown drug causes lucid dreaming as well as upping your body's physical response to the dream.”

“Yes,” Dr. Moore continued. “You had the same type of brain activity we usually correspond with lucid dreaming. Your body also reacted pretty intensely to the situation. Your heart rate was elevated, your breathing labored and at one point, your body temperature dropped drastically. Sometimes people who have lucid dreams feel the repercussions of those dreams with a lot more intensity. I know you mentioned your other dreams, but did you feel the effects of those dreams after you woke up?”

“Yes,” Peter admitted. “I had one where I was on fire and when I woke up my skin felt like it was. The same thing for when I was drowning, I could actually feel the water in my lungs. It’s like no matter what happens in the nightmare, when I wake up I still am feeling the effects. Could the nightmares have killed me? Could I have really drowned or something?” 

The three doctors seemed to exchange looks as if none were quite sure of how to answer the question. Dr. Cho was finally the one who spoke up. “From what we’ve seen, we aren’t sure yet. I’ve been trying to reach out to the coroner's office regarding the two individuals who passed away from the drug. We haven’t been successful in getting a hold of them yet. Even if we do end up getting them, your body is so much different than a human’s body now. How they reacted to the drug, might not be how your body handled it.”

Dr. Reed nodded her head and picked up from there. “We know from experience with you that your metabolism works at a much higher rate than normal. That also means you process the drugs a lot quicker, as well as their side effects. We think you might be experiencing the side effects much faster and more intensely at first. This is why you had your worst dreams right after getting dosed. As the drug leaves your system, the dreams seem to be less intense but as we saw last night, even two weeks later your body reacted as if you were experiencing falling into cold water.”

There was a heavy silence that filled the room as Peter realized what was going on. “How do we stop it?” Peter asked.

“We don’t know,” Dr. Reed answered. “Usually drugs completely flush from your system once they hit, but this one, along with the ketamine is sticking around. We’ve run a lot of tests, but we need to get a sample of the drug or at least, figure out what it might be.”

“Until then,” Dr. Moore jumped in. “We all think you should stay here at the Tower where we can monitor your sleep.”

“That would be the best” May said, she spared Peter a glance and he suddenly felt worse than he had in days.

“I’m sorry,” Peter said quickly. “For making all of you go through so much for me.”

“It’s alright kid,” Mr. Stark finally spoke up. Peter knew he was still upset about the whole thing. He hadn’t gotten a lecture from the man, but he felt it was coming as soon as everyone else was finished with him. Maybe both May and Mr. Stark would team up with their lectures, it would save a lot of time if both of them would yell at him together. “We’re going to set you and May up on the floor below mine. You can sleep in a comfortable head while you’re here. It’s almost a vacation.”

“Can I go to school?” Peter cut in. “Can I patrol?”

Dr. Cho looked to May and Mr. Stark. “I don’t see a reason he can’t attend school as long as he’s getting enough sleep. As for patrolling...I’ll leave that up to you two.” 

All three of the doctors excused themselves from the room. That left Peter with two people who were annoyed with him and a question he knew he wasn’t going to like the answer to.

“I don’t think you should patrol,” Mr. Stark said. “Between the lack of sleep and the side effects, we don’t know what might happen to you out there.”

“What if I’m getting sleep?” Peter asked. “Please?”

“I think Tony’s right, Pete,” May said softly, she gave his wrist a little squeeze. “I’d feel better if you just went from school to here until the drugs were completely out of your system.”

Peter didn’t think he’d win this particular war, but it was worth asking. He nodded his head and tried to give May his best apologetic smile. “That’s fair. And I’m sorry that I didn’t tell anyone. I am.”

“We know you are,” May smiled at him and Peter felt a little better. “Now, let’s get some food in you, and then we’ll head back to the apartment to pick up some things.”

~*~

“Mr. Stark?” Peter stood idly outside the lab door. Mr. Stark was bent over one of his tables, working on something. He looked up but didn’t say anything. “Can we talk?”

“Yeah, sure kid.”

Mr. Stark didn’t move, so Peter walked over and stood on the other side of the table. “I know that you’re angry with me about this and I completely understand why. I screwed up again and I almost got myself killed by mobsters or drugs. I realize where I went wrong and I just wanted to apologize.”

Peter talked mostly to the floor but finally looked up at Mr. Stark. He was looking at Peter but he didn’t look nearly as angry as he had before. He jerked his head over to the couch. “Come, sit with me.”

Peter plopped down on the couch with a yawn. He’d been sleeping over at the Tower for four days now. He’d been getting better sleep, the nightmares had slowly been going away. He still wasn’t allowed to patrol just yet.

“Feeling any better?” Mr. Stark asked him, as he sat down next to Peter.

“Eh,” Peter said. “Tired still, nightmares aren’t as bad but still suck. I kinda wish I could go home again soon. I miss my bed.”

“The drug is still in your system,” Mr. Stark responded, he hovered for a moment before sitting down on the other side of the couch.

“Dr. Cho said I was fine,” Peter responded, he knew Mr. Stark had a point, but they didn’t know anything and he felt fine overall. 

“We don’t know that for sure,” Mr. Stark said and Peter gave him a face. “There’s also the chance that one of the dreams would kill you.”

“This isn’t some weird science fiction story, people can’t die from nightmares. It’s like, science.”

Mr. Stark raised his eyebrow at him. “Like science? I dunno Parker, you haven’t been to space, have you? Who knows what space drugs can do to a person.”

Peter made an annoying sound but didn’t protest. Mr. Stark bumped his shoulder casually against Peter’s. “I’m not mad at you, Pete.”

“You aren’t?”

“No. I’m worried about you and I don’t like seeing you hurt. You put yourself on the line in a very dangerous way when you went after the drug dealers. The Manfredi family, they aren’t a joke and they don’t play games.”

“I know that,” Peter said a little defensively and then realized just how understanding Mr. Stark was with him. “Sorry. I mean, I did know that but I just wanted to show you that I could research something and understand it. Not just jump into it.”

“There’s a balance you have to find, Pete. You did the right thing, not jumping straight in but you also didn’t consider asking for help.”

“Would you have?” Peter asked. “Helped me? Would you have let me go after Dodger and all of them if I had gone to you when I saw the drugs?”

Mr. Stark pursed his lips and then shrugged. “Maybe? I don’t know. You never gave me the chance. I trust you kid and I believe in what you can do. You’re still learning this superhero gig stuff, eventually, you’ll find your footing.”

Peter hummed and nodded. Mr. Stark smiled at him and then spoke again. “You did do a good job. You figured out where to go and who to look for. You were doing good until you got caught.”

“That bothers me still,” Peter said truthfully. “I was careful when I was following Dodger and he still caught me. I’ll admit, going into the auto repair place was stupid.”

“You can’t be perfect, Pete,” Mr. Stark said. “He could have seen you without you knowing it. You shouldn’t worry about it now. We’re planning on taking him down too, going to try and clear it all out. We should be getting close enough.”

Peter looked over at him, they hadn’t talked much about the Manfredi crime family and where they might have the labs. He told Mr. Stark what the guy said about not being the ones, but Peter made it clear he didn't believe him. “You guys are getting close to finding the lab?”

It looked like Mr. Stark didn’t want to answer him but eventually, he did. “Yes, Peter. With our resources which are far more than what you have, we might have found where they are manufacturing the drugs,” he paused for a millisecond but before Peter could ask his question he barreled on. “And the proper authorities will be going in to check it out hopefully next week.”

“Yeah, okay. Can you just keep me updated on what happens next week?” Peter asked hopefully. “I kinda feel responsible for this still and I want to make sure the stuff is off the streets.”

“You aren’t responsible for this, Pete but yes, I’ll keep you in the loop. How about we go watch a movie tonight?”

“Really?” Peter asked. Living in the Tower was nice but he’d rarely seen Mr. Stark throughout the week. He’s spent some time with him in the lab, but he was often at the Compound for Avengers business. 

“Why not? See if May wants to join us too. I’ll order take out, we can have a nice dinner and a movie night.”

“Yeah, cool.”

~*~

The next week all of the drugs were finally out of Peter’s system and he was finally given the okay to sleep in his own bed finally. Mr. Stark texted him when he was in school on Monday, letting him know they found the lab Manfredi’s used to manufacture drugs and gathering samples.

“I still can’t believe you were that much of an idiot,” Ned said as Peter showed him the texts from Mr. Stark. 

“Yeah well,” Peter said. “I got results didn’t I?”

“And also shot at, can’t forget that,” Ned deadpanned but smiled when Peter did. “I don’t know how much luck you can continue to have dude.”

“Hopefully a lot more,” Peter responded. He kept glancing at his phone for another text from Mr. Stark. He was feeling particularly anxious about the raid and what drugs they found. They wouldn’t know for sure if they were space drugs or not. “I still feel weird about some stuff.”

“Like what?” Ned asked.

“Like how Dodger knew I was following him and why the guy I questioned denied the space drug part.”

“What if he didn’t know it was space drugs?” Ned questioned. He finished eating from the bag of chips and held them out for Peter, who took the bag automatically. “It could have been a need to know things.”

“Dodger knew, so did the guy buying. I don’t think it would be a secret,” Peter said in between handfuls of chips.

“He could have been lying to you, he was a mobster.”

Peter shrugged. “I guess, but it’s a stupid thing to lie about. He was confused too, though the whole thing was funny. He accused me of being on some space drugs.”

“Well,” Ned said and then gestured towards Peter, “you did show up in your outfit. It is kinda weird.”

“It’s not weird,” Peter hissed, “and it’s not an outfit either. It’s my costume…” Peter trailed and when Ned cracked up laughing, Peter did too. “Okay yeah, that didn’t sound any better.”

“Are you going to tell Mr. Stark about your concerns?” Ned asked when the laughter died out. 

Peter shrugged. “Maybe. It depends, I just really want to know if they found the actual space drugs or not.”

A few hours later as Peter left school and started towards an alley to change into, Mr. Stark called him.

“Hi Mr. Stark,” Peter said happily into the phone. “What happened with the raid?”

“I’m good thanks for asking,” he said sarcastically but then answered Peter’s question anyway. “Things went fine, kid, as I texted earlier. I just wanted to let you know that Dodger managed to getaway. They went to pick him up but he was long gone.”

“Damn,” Peter said, he turned into the alleyway and walked towards the back. “I was really hoping they’d catch him.”

“Yeah well, not everything works out sometimes. We've got some samples of the drugs here, Reed is taking a look at it. Want to stop by tomorrow after school? She wants to test your blood again.”

“Ugh,” Peter complained. “I hate needles.”

“Maybe don’t get exposed to space drugs and you won’t have to deal with needles.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I spent way too much time trying to work in real medical things but in the end it's all just hand wavy super enhanced person logic, y'know. I also really like making character say the phrase "space drug".


	5. Chapter 5

When Peter arrived at the Tower after school, Mr. Stark dragged him off into the medbay. It was a place Peter had been getting a little sick of seeing. One of the normal nurses, Melody, was waiting for him when he walked in. She’d taken his blood a few times before, he liked her, she was always pretty quick about it. 

“Hi Peter,” she said cheerfully, the equipment spread out on a tray before her. “Ready?”

“Do I get an option to say no?” Peter asked, Mr. Stark, put his hand on his shoulder and guided him towards the bed. “I kid, I kid.”

He hopped up and held out his arm out, Melody started to get ready and Peter turned to Mr. Stark. “I don't know why you’re so scared of needs,” Mr. Stark said, “you’ve dealt with much worse pain.”

“It’s not the pain,” Peter corrected, “it’s just the,” he shuddered a little, “thought of something sticking into my skin. Ugh, just no thanks.”

Melody made an amused sound. “Okay, sit tight. You know the drill, just a pinch.”

Peter had to look away, he kept his eyes on Mr. Stark and absolutely didn't flinch when he felt the pinch of the needle. “There you go,” Melody said, releasing the tourniquet. She finished up after a minute, putting the 4 vials of blood on the tray and cleaning up everything else. She came over and handed Peter not only a sucker but stuck a Hulk band aid on his arm. He beamed.

“Thank you, Melody.”

“Thank you for being a good patient,” she turned to Mr. Stark. “Dr. Reed and Dr. Cho wanted to talk to both of you, they should be here in a minute or so.”

She walked out of the room as Peter opened the sucker. It was his favorite kind, a sour cherry one. He smiled up at Mr. Stark who was giving him a fond look. “We stock those in here for you, you know that right?”

“The suckers?” Peter said with it hanging out of his mouth. “That’s cool.”

“Not cool,” Mr. Stark said, he sat down on the edge of the bed Peter was sitting on. Peter brought up his legs to give him more room. “That just means you spend too much time in here.”

“You’re just jealous I got a Hulk band aid and not an Iron Man one.”

Mr. Stark opened his mouth but there was a knock on the door before it opened and both doctors walked in.

“Hi boys,” Dr. Cho said, she sounded a little tired and Peter felt bad that she had to deal with this stuff now too. She was a busy woman and certainly didn't need to spend all her time worrying about Peter. “I’ve got some interesting news.”

She sat on the stool near the bed, Dr. Reed pulled up another one next to her. “Are you alright with May not being here, Peter?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Okay good. I’ve got some results back from the drugs they found in the lab. And well,” she paused. “It’s not the drugs that Peter had in his system.”

“What?” Mr. Stark asked at the same time Peter asked, “Really?”

“The drugs found in Peter’s system were a combination of the unknown drug and ketamine. Whatever they were making in the lab, it’s just a normal ketamine cocktail. There’s nothing unknown about it. It doesn’t even match what we found in Peter’s system at all,” Dr. Reed responded.

“Could the drug have changed in Peter’s system?” Mr. Stark asked.

“Not likely,” Dr. Reed responded. “Drugs don’t tend to change their structure completely. Not even the type of ketamine cocktail matched the one that Peter had.”

“Could they have stopped production on the drug and switched to normal ketamine?” Mr. Stark asked. 

“Maybe,” Dr. Cho answered, “but that drug left a pretty strong residue long after it was gone. We tested Peter’s suit and he still had particles that were almost two weeks old by the time we got it. None of the drugs found in the lab had any of the particles. I even tested the clothing of one of the agents who had been at the raid. There’s absolutely no evidence of the unknown drug.”

“So we didn’t get them?” Peter questioned. “We got the wrong lab?”

“Or they weren’t the ones making the drug, to begin with,” Mr. Stark commented. “Or you got exposed to the unknown substance some other way.”

“I swear, I wasn’t dosed with any other drugs with or without my consent recently.”

All the adults shared the same look between them. 

“I believe you, Peter,” Dr. Cho said in response. “But I’d like you to bring some items from your home here if you can. I want to test the clothing you’ve been wearing and your bedding. We want to make sure we aren’t missing another possible contamination point.”

“Isn’t it a bit too much of a coincidence that he gets dosed with two different drugs around the same time?” Mr. Stark asked.

“Yes, but I’d rather be safe on this. We’re checking the blood we took today to see if he’s showing any additional exposure.”

“Okay, yeah. Can Happy drive me back to the apartment?” Peter asked Mr. Stark.

“Sure kid, I’ll go with you too. May’s home now isn’t she? I can update her.”

~*~

When they arrived at Peter’s apartment he went into the bedroom straight away to collect what he could. He grabbed his sheets, pillowcase, and looked around for as much clothing as he could. He did laundry the week before, but Dr. Reed said the residue might still be present on clothing. She also wanted him to take items that he didn’t have with him when he was dosed but wore in the weeks after. They already knew the suit was contaminated, but he brought it along anyway. Dr. Reed said they could clean it, try to remove as much residue as possible so Peter could use it again soon.

He brought everything back to the Tower and Mr. Stark invited him to hang out in the lab before going home. Peter parked himself at this usual table and started to fiddle with the web fluid he’d been working on for a while. Mr. Stark seemed to go back to his work and silence filled the room.

Peter’s mind was elsewhere, he couldn’t stop thinking about the space drugs not being produced by the Manfredi family. Ricky was the one who pointed him to Dodger, who was working with them. Could Dodger be doing it on his own? He seemed slick enough to get away with something like that.

“Kid?” He heard Mr. Stark’s voice and turned his head to see the man looking at him. “You alright? You kinda spaced out there.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Peter amended. “Just thinking about Dodger and the drugs. The whole thing just feels so hinky.”

“Hinky?” Mr. Stark asked in an amused tone. 

“Yeah like, it’s just not right. I dunno, it feels like we’re missing something with the drugs, that's all.”

“Yeah well, right now we’re missing where and how you got dosed with a space drug, which is most important.”

“I kind of want to talk to Ricky,” Peter said almost absentmindedly. “He’s the one that turned me towards Dodger in the first place. He might know some more information.”

“Ricky?” Mr. Stark questioned. “That guy you went to with the drugs instead of me?”

The way he said it made Peter’s face flush a little. Mr. Stark must have sensed Peter’s slight embarrassment because the man seemed to sigh a little. “Relax, kid. I’m not mad at you. I’m impressed you managed to go out there and find some resources.”

“I was just trying to help him,” Peter admitted. “He was down on his luck and I did what I could. I didn’t really even think about him being an informant until I needed him.”

“You still did good,” Mr. Stark said and Peter could feel the flush still in his cheeks. This was what he wanted after all, for Mr. Stark to be proud of him. “Listen, how about you go talk to Ricky tomorrow? May’s letting you patrol this week isn’t she?”

“Yeah, she said I could go out a few times this week.”

“Good, ask him if he knows what’s going on with Dodger. Maybe we can get some information that SHIELD can’t get themselves.”

“Really? You’ll let me investigate this?” Peter questioned, trying to hold back his excitement. 

“Yes, but you have to promise me the second something goes wrong, you call me and get yourself safe, okay?”

“Promise,” Peter replied and actually meant it this time around. The rest of the night went by a lot more enjoyable.

~*~

When Peter arrived in front of Ricky’s place, he was surprised not to see the guy on the steps. Ricky normally spent most of his time sitting on his front steps, hanging out, talking to people. He was a social hub of the neighbor and without him there, Peter didn’t quite know what to do next. 

He could try and give Ricky a buzz, see if he could come down and talk. Or he could try and go up to see Ricky. After a second or two of deliberation, the front door opened and an older woman walked out, carrying a large and heavy looking garbage bag.

Peter rushed forward. “Hi ma’am,” he said and reached his hand out. “Can I help you carry this?”

She looked him over but seemed to recognize who he was and smiled. “Thank you.”

Peter took the bag and walked back to the side of the building, tossing the bag into the dumpster. When he walked back the woman was still standing by the door. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure, sure,” she said and offered Peter a warm smile. “You’re that spider kid who helps people. I’ve heard about you.”

“Spider-man,” Peter corrected and continued. “Do you know the guy named Ricky who lives here?”

She pursed her lips. “Why do you ask? Is he in trouble?”

“Oh no,” Peter said quickly, wishing for once that she could see the expression on his face. “I’m a friend. I just wanted to see how he was doing. He usually sits out here and uh, he’s not.”

She nodded. “He’s been inside now, feeling a little under the weather.”

Peter thanked her and followed her into the small entrance. She offered to let him in, but Peter didn’t want to just walk into the building. He had his preferred method of visiting people, via the window, if possible.

He checked Ricky's apartment number on the mailboxes and room and headed towards the side of the building. He climbed up the wall to the 4th floor and made his way over to the side window. He peeked inside and caught sight of Ricky sitting on his couch.

Peter knocked on the window, it caught Ricky’s attention quickly and he had to grin at the look of surprise on the man’s face. He walked over and lifted the window.

“Surprised me, Webs!” He said with a laugh. “Risky business knockin’ on people’s windows, don’t know what they might be up to.” He added a wink at the end of his sentence and Peter responded with nervous laughter. “Wanna come in?”

He always felt weird being in his spider suit in such domestic places. He would have stuck out like a sore thumb in Ricky’s living room. It was pretty bare, just a couch, TV and table and chairs off to the side. He really didn't feel like being awkward. 

“Nah,” Peter said. “I’m not stayin’ long. How are you doing?” 

“Been better, Webs, but that’s life. What brings you over here?”

“I just hadn’t seen you in a while and uh, I wanted to let you know that thanks to your help we busted the Manfredi's.”

“Yeah, I heard some rumors,” he said with a chuckle, “cleaned them all out, didn’t ya?”

“Well, we tried but uh, Dodger got away.”

“He’s a slippery one,” Ricky commented. “Feelin’ better about them space drugs now?”

Peter hesitated before he spoke, he didn’t know what to Ricky, how much information he should share with him. Even when he was an addict, Ricky was always upfront and honest with him. Peter trusted him, to a point. “Kinda. It seems the Manfredi's might not have been the only ones who were distributing them.”

He went with a half-lie, he didn’t need to know everything. “Oh,” Ricky responded. “Didn’t know that. How’d you reckon?”

“We found some space drugs there but not a lot. I was hoping maybe you knew a little more about Dodger. If he might have been dealing with anyone else.”

Ricky tilted his head left and right, pursing his lips. He hummed for a minute or so. “Nah, not really. Dodger’s pretty loyal when it comes to drug dealin’. Manfredi's are slippery suckers, there might be other labs. Dodger might have warned them, especially if he’s in the wind now. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“Yeah,” Peter said softly. “Well uh, thanks. For everything, man. You were really helpful and I appreciate how much you’ve helped me with this.”

“Of course Webs! You know I want those drugs off the streets as much as you do.” He reached out his hand under the window frame. Peter stuck to the wall with one hand, the other taking Ricky gave me a hard handshake. He made a whistling sound at Peter’s display, hanging one-handedly on the edge of a building. “Don’t be a stranger, alright?”

“Yeah,” Peter responded and started to climb back down the side of the wall, not feeling as if he got anything that he wanted. 

~*~

Peter was heading home from Ricky when he got a call from Mr. Stark to swing by the Tower if he could. They’d finished analyzing his clothing, Mr. Stark wanted to talk to him about the results and to take the stuff back home.

Mr. Stark had requested he head up to the penthouse when he arrived. He walked into the living room to find Mr. Stark on the couch.

“Hey kid,” he called out, giving Peter a little wave. He already had taken his mask off in the elevator but the rest of his suit remained. “Why don’t you go get changed and I’ll order us some dinner? I take it you haven’t eaten yet.”

“Uh, yeah that’s cool.”

After staying at the Tower for the nightmare situation, they had left the room Peter had used to set up for him still. He had some clothing items and a scattering of personal items there. He didn’t bring it up with Mr. Stark, he liked having the stuff there. He hoped he could keep the room going for a while, just a place he could hang out when or if he needed to. 

When he came back from a quick shower, the Mexican food Mr. Stark ordered was waiting for him. It always amazed him that Mr. Stark remembered his favorite foods or at least he programmed FRIDAY too. He took a seat on the couch and dived right into the burrito that awaited him.

“Did you talk to Ricky?” Mr. Stark asked as he finished off one of his tacos.

“Yeah,” Peter swallowed a bit before finishing. “He was surprised that Manfredi's weren’t the ones doing it. He thinks there might be more labs, or that they got spooked by me at some point. He says Dodger usually works for just them.”

“And you believe his intel?” 

Peter shrugged, taking another bite. “Sure,” he said, mouth full. Mr. Stark made a face and Peter quickly swallowed again before talking. “I didn’t tell him the whole truth about it and he didn’t have a reason to lie to me.”

Mr. Stark hummed in response and they ate for a little bit longer in silence. Peter demolished two burritos and was working on a massive plate of nachos when Mr. Stark began to speak again.

“We got the results back from the tests on your things. There were trace amounts of the space drug on the items on some of your things. Your bed sheets, pillowcases, and whatnot. Nothing on the stuff you didn’t wear.”

“So, that means it had to be from getting dosed, doesn’t it? It would make sense the stuff is in my bed, I went there straight after getting dosed both times. Well a shower first, but bed after.”

“We still don’t know for sure, Pete.”

Peter stopped shoving nachos down his throat to look up at Mr. Stark. “What do you think?”

“What do I think?” Mr. Stark paused. “I think something, as you put it, hinky is going on with the Manfredi's. I also think that Dodger fellow is the next person that SHIELD needs to track down.”

Peter nodded. “Yeah, me too.” He let out a yawn.

“If you’re getting tired you should stay the night, kid.”

Peter blinked at Mr. Stark a few times. “Uh, really? Why?”

Mr. Stark chuckled. “Because you’ve got a room here already. We can watch a movie and finish polishing off this food. I can call May if you’re worried she’ll say no.”

It was Friday night, so May wouldn’t have a reason to say no unless she just didn’t want Peter to stay at the Tower. 

“Yeah, no that’s cool. I can ask her,” Peter said without trying to sound too excited. 

~*~

Peter was walking outside in the snow. He didn’t know where he was, there was nothing around him but snow and trees. He was in the same PJs he wore to bed that night and he was already freezing. Every time his bare feet hit the snow, it sent a jolt of coldness through his entire body. He had his arms around himself, hugging himself as best he could but it didn’t matter.

He was freezing.

It took a few more seconds of walking before he realized he was dreaming. It wasn’t anything particular that set the knowledge off, he just had the feeling. There was just something about the space that didn’t quite look real enough. 

He remembered what Dr. Moore said about lucid dreaming, about how real it felt and how the dreamer could usually make changes. He stopped walking and closed his eyes, trying to will the environment around him to change, but when he opened his eyes, he was still in the snow.

“Okay,” he said out loud. “Try again.”

He closed his eyes and tried to give himself some kind of coat, but nothing appeared on his arms. He was still standing in the snow getting colder and colder by the second. He started to walk again, hoping he could somehow warm himself up.

It became clear it wasn’t going to work, so he tried waking himself up. He tried to remember how he woke up from the other dreams but he couldn’t. If something was attacking or hurting him, he usually woke up from the pain of the situation. He never made a conscious attempt at waking himself up.

Time felt funny in the dream, Peter couldn’t have been standing there for more than 5 minutes but his body felt like it was in the cold for years. He stopped shivering after a second and he knew that was a bad thing.

“Wake up!” He said out loud. “Come on, Peter, wake up!”

He didn’t wake. He pinched his arm, it hurt but he didn’t wake up. “HELP!” He shouted, remembering when May had to come to help him, he was calling for help both in the dream and out loud. “MR. STARK HELP ME!”

He started to feel heavy, his body was weighing him down and he dropped to his knees. The snow started to fall again, big waves of snow fell on him and started to bury him where he sat. “HELP!”

He tried to force himself to move, get up and leave the pile he was buried in. He closed his eyes, trying to push himself but nothing was working. He was having a hard time keeping his mind working, he was getting tired, which was ridiculous, he was already asleep.

What would happen if he fell asleep in a dream?

He knew he had to make an effort, he couldn’t let this take him out. He felt more in control than he had in over dreams. With all the strength he could muster, he pushed himself and in amazement, he found himself standing up. 

Peter jumped out of bed, almost knocking Mr. Stark to the ground. “Woah, kid!” Mr. Stark scrambled back up and reached out for him. He grabbed Peter’s shoulders and hauled the kid back to the bed sitting him down. He ran his hands up and down his arms, but the cold was still clinging to him.

“Mr. Stark! I had another lucid dream,” he said, his teeth chattering and he was shivering again. His body felt so cold still, an icy sharp pain that laced through his entire body.

“Yeah, I got that, FRIDAY alerted me that your body temperature was plummeting but when I got in you were out cold, no pun intended. Shit, kid, we’ve gotta get you warm. FRI up the heat in here.”

Peter hugged himself closer and nodded, he was glad to be shivering again. He felt warmer than he did in the dream but not by much. Mr. Stark got up and rummaged in Peter’s closet and came back with a hoodie. It was a red Stark Industry one that Mr. Stark had given him a while back. “Thanks.”

“When you feel better, we’re going to go and gtg your blood taken to check for the drugs. How do you think you got contaminated?”

Peter shrugged. “Dunno.” He could feel his body slowly coming back online, a little sluggish at first but he was finally thawing out. “Could it be something in the room?” Peter asked. 

“We didn’t test anything here,” Mr. Stark said. “Dammit, we should have.”

“It’s okay, I didn’t think about it either and this one, was um, different. I felt like I had more control but still couldn’t do anything to save myself.” 

“I’m just glad you were here tonight, kid. You feelin’ good enough to head downstairs? I alerted medical staff that you'd be coming down with me.”

“Yeah, okay.”

~*~

When Peter arrived in the med room a sleepy-looking Melody was waiting for him again. “Sorry,” he said softly to her as he sat down.

“Don’t be,” she said, getting the tourniquet around his arm. Mr. Stark had left him to grab some of the bedding from his room and bring it over to the lab Dr. Reed had been using. She didn’t stay at the Tower, but Mr. Stark told him she was already on her way over. “It’s what I’m here for.”

Melody finished quickly and she must have noticed how chilly he was feeling, as she tossed a blanket at him before she left. “Sit tight, I know Dr. Reed will want to take a look at you.”

Peter wrapped the blanket around himself like a cape and sat cross-legged on the bed. He glanced at the clock, it was close to 4:00 am. He felt bad everyone had to be up and doing things for him. After a minute or two, Mr. Stark came back in.

He walked over and hopped on the bed and sat across from Peter. “Feeling any warmer yet, Pete?”

“Kinda,” he said truthfully. “Sorry I cause so many problems.”

Mr. Stark scowled at him and reached over, managing to put his hand on Peter’s knee from above the covers. “You kid, are the very last person who should apologize for causing trouble. I know how much good you want to do.”

“But it usually ends up bad,” Peter said with a yawn. “It’s like Parker Luck can’t go away for just one minute. All I want to do is get those stupid drugs off the streets and nothing I do seems to be working.”

“Parker Luck?” Mr. Stark asked, eyebrows raised. 

“Yeah,” Peter said, “it’s something Ben used to say. He got it from his father and so forth, it’s just something good happens to you but then it causes all this bad stuff even if you didn’t want it to. I got bitten by that spider, right?”

Mr. Stark nodded although Pere realized he never really told Mr. Stark the whole story, that was for another time. “And I get these amazing powers but I’m a stupid 13 year old who has no idea what responsibility even means.”

“I highly doubt that,” Mr. Stark jumped in.

“You didn’t know me,” Peter said softly, “you don’t know what I did because I didn’t do anything. I just wasted them away being a stupid little kid. I went out and did stupid things. And then because I was being stupid, Ben had to die.”

“Woah,” Mr. Stark jumped in. “That’s a big leap in logic, Pete.”

“It’s,” Peter waved his hand under the blanket. “It’s more complicated than that, of course, but you remember what I said to you when we first met and you asked me why I do this?”

Mr. Stark smiled at him, almost fondly. “Yeah, the whole when you can do the things you do and don’t help bad things happen because of you?”

“Yeah,” Peter affirmed. “I didn’t stop the guy who shot Ben when I could have. If I would have done the right thing and stopped him, then Ben could still be alive,” he paused with a sigh, “and now with these drugs? The longer it takes to figure all of this out, the more people might die. I messed up, Mr. Stark. I let Dodger get the jump on me and he’s gone now because of it.”

“None of that is on you, kid. You can’t blame yourself for what other people do. That includes what happened to your Uncle and what’s going on with the drugs. You are doing your very best and it’s enough.”

Peter didn’t want to start crying but he couldn’t hold it back anymore. He was cold and scared when it came down to it. Mr. Stark moved quickly, he was sitting squished next to Peter in a second, arms wrapped around his shoulders and pulling him close in. He felt stupid for crying like this, he was just being a kid.

“Hey now,” Mr. Stark said and Peter felt a kiss on the side of his head. “It’s okay. I know all of this sucks, but you’re alright. We’ll figure out what’s going on with the space drugs and get it taken care of.”

“Thanks,” Peter said softly, wiping his eyes with the blanket. “I’m sorry.”

“No more sorries,” Mr. Stark said he didn’t let go of Peter, and he was glad for it. Mr. Stark was making him feel so much warmer now too. After a few minutes of silence, there was a knock on the door. Peter thought Mr. Stark was going to move, but he didn’t. “You okay?” He asked Peter quietly.

Peter nodded and Mr. Stark called out. “Come in.”

Dr. Reed walked in when she caught sight of Peter’s face, she sighed and smiled at him. “Are you okay, Peter?”

He nodded and was glad when Mr. Stark spoke up. “He’s just a bit cold still and very tired.”

She nodded. “We’ll make sure you get warmed up, okay? When we’re done go take a hot shower for a few and then get something to eat, it should help you,” she smiled at them and to Peter’s relief didn’t comment on how Mr. Stark was holding onto him like he was a little kid. 

“I have some news,” she said walking over and sitting on the vacant stool in the room. “Peter’s blood is showing signs of the unknown drug but not the ketamine.”

“That’s odd,” Mr. Stark said. “Maybe he was getting dosed from somewhere else?”

“I don’t know for sure, but we did find traces of it on the comforter and pillowcase you brought us. Both the amount in your blood and on the items wasn’t nearly as much as it was before. For a normal person, ketamine doesn’t stay in the bloodstream for longer than 20 hours or so. We know it was in Peter’s for a lot longer than that. There might have been traces left on the comforter or pillow in his room and he might have gotten dosed on accident tonight.”

“I thought it had to be ingested in some way,” Peter said finally, he moved a little from Mr. Stark’s side, but the man kept his arm around Peter’s shoulders still.

“We don’t know that for sure either. The unknown drug is just that, unknown. We’re only working with the smallest of samples of it right now. You’re already really sensitive to it, it might be passable by skin contact with you. We tested Tony’s blood as well tonight and it was clear of the drug but we did find some traces on his current clothing.”

“Huh,” Peter said. “It would make sense if I’m the only one getting it from skin to skin contact. Neither May nor Ned had any effects and I was physically near them when I was still technically dosed by the stuff and they were around my stuff that was contaminated stuff too.”

“What’s our next steps?” Mr. Stark asked.

“I’d like to test everything in his room here at the Tower for any trace amounts. I also think we should be testing Peter at the end of each day before he goes to bed. This way we can try to figure out where he could be coming in contact with the drug.”

“Please don’t tell me I have to quarantine or anything,” Peter said pleadingly. He didn’t think he could stay cooped up anywhere, even if it was the Tower.

“I don’t think that’s necessary right now,” Dr. Reed explained. “But Peter, it’s very important you stay as far away from this drug as possible. The amount in your blood, was very little and you still had an extreme reaction. Until we’re able to neutralize the drug, it’s very dangerous for you.”

“Yeah,” Peter said, taking a deep breath. “Okay, I understand, I promise I’ll be careful.”


	6. Chapter 6

“I really want to go after Dodger,” Peter commented from his spot upside down on the ceiling. Ned sat below him, the Playstation remote in his hand. “I feel so useless just staying here.”

“Did Mr. Stark tell you that you should?” Ned asked, not keeping his eyes off the screen. “Dammit,” he mumbled as they both watched Crash Bandicoot fall off the ledge for the 10th time in a row. “Why are we doing this to ourselves?”

“Because we’re gluttons for punishment,” Peter said, waiting for the level to restart. “Lemmie try, you’ve failed enough.” Ned lifted the remote so Peter could grab it.

“Are you really going to try it upside down?” Ned asked when the level started and Peter attempted to play.

“I can do it,” he said and then watched as Crash fell off the ledge, again, within minutes. “Dammit,” he mumbled. He flipped himself over, landing on the floor. Ned laughed and tried to get the remote from his hand. “Noo, let me have another turn.”

“Fine,” Ned said giggling. “And don’t ignore my question. Did Mr. Stark tell you to go after Dodger?”

“No,” Peter admitted and then shouted in happiness as Crash passed the first major jump and landed on the platform. “Honestly, I think my spider powers have greatly improved my video game platforming skills.”

Ned snorted. “Yeah, that’s totally the coolest thing you got out of this.” 

He silently watched Peter play, as the level continued Ned started again. “If Mr. Stark doesn’t want you to go after Dodger, I don’t think you should.”

“But the longer he’s out there, the longer I have to keep getting stupid blood tests and worrying about getting space drugged.”

“Why do you get to say the coolest things? Dude, you get to go to Iron Man’s house every day to make sure you aren’t infected by space drugs. That’s like, really cool.”

Peter gave him a look and in the second he looked away from the TV, Crash got hit with a projectile. “Dammit!” Peter yelled as Ned laughed. 

He yanked the control out of Peter’s hands and once again, started the level over again. “Didn’t you say SHIELD was going after him? They should be able to find him.”

He watched Ned make the first jump and then the following. “Yeah but it’s my responsibility.”

“No offense Peter but you think everything is your responsibility and honestly, it’s just untrue.”

“Rude,” Peter joked. 

“But true,” Ned added. They were silent as Ned approached the last jump if he made it they’d pass the level finally. 

The second he made the jump they both shouted, the controller flying out of Ned’s hands. “Shit!” He dived for the controller, he hadn’t finished the level, just the jump. Thankfully, he grabbed it and finished the level.

They dissolved in laughter when they finally stopped to catch their breaths, Ned let out a loud sigh. “If you go after him dude, just be careful.”

“I will be,” Peter insisted. “I’m not gonna jump into danger or anything.”

Ned snorted and started the next level. “Yeah sure, totally believe you.”

“Rude,” Peter said, playfully shoving Ned’s shoulders, just enough to jostle the controller, Crash didn’t make the jump and Ned elbowed him in the ribs as revenge.

~*~

It turned out he didn't need to find Dodger, the man found him the next night as he patrolled. He was heading back home when he heard someone shout out a loud, “SPIDER-MAN HEY!” as he swung by. He landed on the closest roof and turned, the second he noticed who was calling his name.

Dodger was standing on the street, yelling up at him still. Peter hesitated for a moment before swinging down and landing a few feet away from him. The man didn’t have any visible weapons and his spider-sense wasn’t warning him off at the moment. 

“I need to talk to you,” Dodger said, sounding very annoyed.

“Um,” Peter responded. “Why?” 

He didn’t walk closer, Dodger looked annoyed and took two large steps forward. Peter didn’t move away or closer, instead, he tried to stand taller. He had to look a little less unsure teenager and more very sure superhero. Dodge might have gotten the jump on him before, he wasn’t going to let him now.

“You’re getting my way and you need to take a step back,” Dodger said sharply. “You did enough.”

“You need to stop selling space drugs,” Peter responded. “Also, I’m not in the business of taking advice from drug dealers.”

Dodger laughed. “You really don’t understand anything that's happening, do you? Shoulda realized you’re just some kid playin’ dress up.”

“I’m not a kid,” Peter said angrily, stepping forward finally. He wasn’t in Dodger’s face, but he was close enough. “You need to tell me who you’re selling for.”

“I ain't tell ya nothin’,” he said with a laugh. “I’m warin’ you right now, keep your sticky fingers out of my business and walk away. You got the big guns, back off from the rest.”

“No,” Peter said definitely. He wanted to move forward but the sudden fear of being dosed again struck him. He promised Ned he wouldn’t do anything stupid and yet here Dodger was, almost waiting for him to do something stupid. “Why don’t you turn yourself in? I’m sure you can work out something with SHIELD. They’ll give you a break if you talk.”

Dodger laughed, a very snorty laugh that made Peter’s stomach queasy. “You’re really naive and stupid, Spidey boy.” 

He stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out a bag, Peter tensed up immediately. “You’re scared of this stuff aren’t ya? Does it give lil’ old Websie nightmares?” Dodger snort laughed again as if he was so amused by Peter’s obvious discomfort.

If Peter could just web him up quickly, he just couldn’t risk being dosed up by the drug. Dodger must have sensed Peter’s plan because he lifted a finger and shook it at him like Peter really was a naughty child. “Nu-uh. You stay right there and let me go and you’ll get some sleep tonight. Hell, keep that in mind forever, consider it an open threat. You come near us again, you’ll be havin’ nightmares for the rest of your life.”

Peter didn’t respond right away and Dodger started to walk backward, eyes firmly onto Peter. “You won’t get away with this,” Peter said, feeling lame the second the words left his mouth.

Dodger laughed loudly again. “You watch too many movies! Welcome to reality.”

With that Dodger turned and ran, sprinting down the street and Peter almost gave chase but didn’t. He couldn’t risk getting dosed again, instead, he just watched Dodger’s fleeting figure disappear down the street. 

~*~

When Peter arrived at the Tower after his run with Dodger, he sat nervously waiting for his blood results. He hadn’t gotten too close to the man, but the paranoia was still there. Mr. Stark wasn’t in the building and Peter took it as a sign that he didn’t need to tell him about his Dodger run-in. It wasn’t as if anything happened, Dodger just threatened him and Peter, like an idiot, let Dodger getaway.

When Peter got a clean bill of health he headed back to his apartment. He tried to remember Dodger’s conversation with him. He wanted to keep Peter away from him, wanted Peter to stop trying to figure out where the drugs were coming from.

But how did he know he was still interested? Dodger knew the Manfredi's were taken down. Did he know that SHIELD knew they weren’t the ones producing the space drug? Did Dodger assume SHIELD and Peter were still on the lookout for him? It was clear in the way Dodger spoke, that he was working with someone, if not at least for someone else too. 

How was Peter ever going to figure everything out?

Mr. Stark called him the next evening as he was heading home from school. It wasn't a normal patrol night for him, instead a night to do homework, eat dinner, and relaxed. Since Peter has been uncontaminated for over a week, he didn’t have to get tested again. While they weren’t certain where he was getting dosed from, it was safe to say it wasn’t at school or home.

“Hey Mr. Stark,” he answered, as he made his way down the block towards the subway.

“Hey kid, where are you at?”

“Walking home, almost on the subway, why? Is something wrong?”

“Uh, no, but well, I just heard from SHIELD today. They found Dodger.”

“Oh,” Peter responded, he stopped walking and stepped into a side alley. “That’s good.” He thought about mentioning his visit with him, but now it didn’t matter.

“It’d be better if they didn’t find him dead.”

“What?”

“They found him dead in a lab, we don’t have much information about it but I just wanted to let you know.”

“Oh,” Peter said a little dumbly. He didn’t think Dodger was a good guy, but that didn’t mean he wanted him to die. “Did they find the space drug?”

“Don’t know yet, but I think so. They’re testing it now, should know soon but I think we’re got ‘um.”

“That’s good, I guess,” Peter said softly. A car’s horn went out and Peter flinched from the sound. This is real life, Peter thought as Dodger said to him, and sometimes this is what happens.

“Don’t worry about it kid. I know you would rather Dodger be alive, but this might be getting the drugs off the streets and that’s a good thing.”

“Yeah,” he repeated, “yeah. That’s good, thanks for letting me know, Mr. Stark.”

“Of course kid.”

Mr. Stark hung up, it took Peter a few moments before he was ready to walk back onto the street. 

~*~

“What’s the news?” Peter asked walking into the penthouse apartment. He’d been feeling a lot more comfortable walking in than he had in the past. Maybe spending the night there several times was starting to take away the nervousness of it. Mr. Stark had asked him to come over again after his patrol. He told him that he had news about Dodger and the space drug.

“Hey kid,” Mr. Stark called out from behind his bar. “Food? Drink?”

“Uh, Dr. Pepper?” Peter asked, he walked over and hopped up on one of the bar stools. He twirled around for a moment before stopping and facing Mr. Stark. He had an amused look on his face and Peter blushed. “Um, hi.”

Mr. Stark chuckled and pushed the can of Dr. Pepper in front of him. “Having fun?”

Peter smirked back at him. “‘Course.” He took a swig of his pop, Mr. Stark leaned forward on the counter on his elbows.

“I’ve got news about what happened with Dodger.”

“Yeah, do tell,” Peter said eagerly. It’d only been three days since he got the news, but the topic hadn’t left his mind. He was still trying to work past the hinky feeling he still had about the whole ordeal.

“Looks like he died of an overdose of the space drug mixture. The lab they found him in had some as well as traces of it. It looks like he might have been the mastermind behind the whole thing, to begin with. SHIELD thinks he was buying ketamine off Manfredi's and lacing it with the space drug himself and then selling it out. Nothing confirmed of course, but it sounds like a pretty solid explanation.”

“Hm,” Peter responded, while it did sound like a good explanation, he just didn’t feel like it was the right one. “So uh,” he started, realizing he should at some point tell Mr. Stark about Dodger's visit. “Before he died Dodger found me.”

“He did what now?”

“He found me on patrol and warned me to stay away from him and drop the whole thing about the space drugs. It happened right before he died, but he didn’t like dose me or anything so I just didn’t think it was all that relevant.”

Mr. Stark was giving him a blank look like he couldn’t believe quite what an idiot Peter was being, he honestly didn’t blame him. “Look,” Peter started quickly, “he just told me to get my nose out of his business, that’s all, I promise. I was going to tell you but then all of this happened.” He made a wide hand gesture to encompass all of the things that had happened, which wasn’t all that much.

Mr. Stark shook his head. “Do you not trust me?”

“No,” Peter almost shouted but then backtracked. “Yes, I mean, no. I trust you, Mr. Stark, of course, I do. You’re… you’re Iron Man. You’re Tony Stark. I trust you.”

“Then why, Pete? Why don’t you tell me these things? Why don’t you say something? I don’t understand how you can keep things like this from people who can help you.”

Peter felt immediately guilty about everything. He wasn’t trying to keep secrets and make things harder for people. “I’m sorry,” Peter sighed, putting his head down. “I just didn’t want to worry anyone and I thought since he was dead, it didn’t matter. I should have told you.”

“I’m not trying to be the bad guy here, Pete,” Mr. Stark said. “God, that makes me sound like Howard,” he mumbled. “I just want you to be safe, alright?”

“I know you do,” Peter admitted. “If I’m honest, I feel like this whole thing is still just... hinky.”

Mr. Stark grinned at him. “You and your hinkyness. I thought it was your Peter Tingle that was your sixth sense.”

“Please don’t call it that,” Peter said seriously but then grinned. 

“What about it do you find hinky?”

Peter shrugged. “I dunno. I just don't feel like this could just be Dodger doing it. I only saw the guy a couple of times but when he warned me away it sounded like he was working with a few people.”

“He could have had partners, kid. Just because we didn’t see anyone else, doesn’t mean he’s working alone but he seems to be the mastermind behind it all.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Peter said aimlessly. “I just don’t want the drugs back out there, you know? We don’t know anything about them still. It’s just dangerous.”

“It’ll be fine, kiddo. I promise if I hear anything I’ll let you know, or heck, if you hear something, don’t keep it to yourself. If you feel like someone’s hinky and you might know what the answer is, share it with the class.”

Peter nodded and a thought came into his mind. “I was tracking Dodger before this, just to see where he was getting drugs from. Do you know where they busted his lab at? Maybe we can figure out where any other labs might be.”

“We?” Mr. Stark questioned but didn’t wait for Peter to answer. “You know drug dealing is serious Pete. These people don’t just play around.”

“I know,” Peter said defensively. “What if I just match up a few places? Rule some of them out and see what happens? Please, Mr. Stark, I want to help. I want to make sure no one else has to die.”

Mr. Stark looked like was going to say no again, but didn’t. “I’ll send you some information. You can look into it, but the second you see anything, anything at all, you have to promise to alert me or the authorities, okay?”

“I promise, Mr. Stark!” Peter said, intending to keep the promise. 

~*~

Mr. Stark was true to his word and sent Peter what SHIELD had on the location they found Dodger at, as well as what led them there. They had gotten an anonymous call, which further pushed Peter’s suspicion that something just wasn’t right. He knew Dodger had to be working with someone.

With Ned and Karen’s help, he was able to create a rough map of the places Dodger was known to go, with the information from his tracker. While most of them were accounted for, there was a place not too far from Ricky’s the one that Dodger frequented often. 

“Should I ask Ricky?” Peter asked Mr. Stark, he was considering going on his own to the location but remembered the promise he had made to try and stay clear of trouble.

“Do you think it’s worth it?” Mr. Stark asked. “Are you sure you can trust him to give you the right answer? Wouldn’t you think if he knew about it, he would have told you?”

“Dunno,” Peter answered truthfully. “It might be worth it, I can swing by there in a few minutes, I’m in the area.”

“Alright, Pete, just be careful, okay?”

He hung up with Mr. Stark and made his way to Ricky’s apartment complex. Ricky wasn’t outside again, so he made his way up the side of the building and to Ricky’s window. Like last time, Ricky was sitting on his couch but when Peter knocked, he didn’t look all that thrilled to see him. There was a passing second of disappointment on his face but it seemed to go away quickly.

Ricky opened the window. “Hey, Webs.” He didn’t sound disappointed or upset, but instead maybe just a little tired.

“Hi Ricky, sorry to bother you.”

“Nah, no worries. What can I do for you today?” He leaned his arm on the window’s ledge, a causal look but something in it made Peter’s anxiety spike up. 

“I just had another question about Dodger.”

“A shame,” Ricky said immediately. “He wasn’t the best guy around but didn’t deserve it.”

“Yeah,” Peter trailed. “But uh, it looks like he had a place he went to close to here. Do you know anything about it?”

Ricky paused, he pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes at Peter, as if he was trying to decide if he should mention it to him or not. “Hmm, dunno. He might have had a safe house around these parts, but I’m not sure. I think back in the day I might have met him at one around close by but I can’t be sure.”

“Hm, okay. We’re just trying to make sure there aren't any more labs with the drugs anywhere, just in case.”

“Yeah, I get it. It’s most likely his safehouse. It might be worth checking out, there could be information around.”

“Oh, okay. That’s all I wanted to know. Again, thank you for all your help with this. If there’s anything I can ever do for you,” Peter started and then Ricky caught him off.

“Why don’t you come inside and have a drink?”

The thrill of anxiety crept up his spine again and Peter swallowed roughly. “Ah, no thanks. I don’t drink and I feel kinda awkward in people’s homes. But thanks, anyway.”

“You sure, Webs? Must get pretty exhausting swinging around all the time. Come on, take a load off.”

Peter shook his head. “I’m good, but thanks a lot.”

“Are you going to go visit the safe house?” Ricky asked, it sounded casual enough but Peter decided to go with noncommittal.

He shrugged. “Maybe, it depends.”

“Okay, I guess. See you later?”

“Yup, see ya.”

Peter quickly made his way up to the roof, feeling a bit unsure of himself. He called Mr. Stark when he made it up to the top. The phone rang a few times before his voicemail picked up. Peter was going to ask him if he thought he should visit the potential safe house tonight and he almost hung up, thinking it was better to ask than just to go.

But Mr. Stark was trusting him to do stuff on his own now. He let Peter look at the other places now too and he just spoke with him before he talked to Ricky. This should be fine.

“Hi Mr. Stark,” Peter started his voicemail. “Just spoke with Ricky, he thinks it’s a safe house. I’m going to head over and check it out now while I’m in the area. I’ll call you back when I’m done. Okay, bye!”

He hung up and looked around into the evening sky. He wanted to check out the safe house but something was still bothering him just a little bit. Ricky had been so sure before that Dodger didn’t make the drugs, but it seemed like he was wrong. Would that also mean he was wrong about the safe house too? 

Making up his mind, he had Karen route him to the supposed safe house, taking a look at it from the street wouldn’t hurt. He made his way there, swinging through the city before arriving on a darkened street block. The location ended on a block of houses, classic two-story buildings all nestled in close to each other. Karen didn’t have the exact address, Peter only knew approximately where Dodger’s car had always been parked. 

He walked over to the house it was in front of often. There were no lights on, but the house looked well taken care of. The grass was trimmed, the porch was cleaned up. There was, however, a small pile of mail by the front door. Peter made his way closer, walking up to the fence and hopping over it. He was pretty sure he found Dodger’s safe house, there weren’t any other cars parked nearby and he couldn’t hear any sounds coming from the house.

Since it was most likely empty, peaking into the windows shouldn’t do any harm. He walked down the side of the house, trying to peek into any windows he could. None of the lights were on, so he couldn’t see much. When he got to the back of the house, stairs were leading up to the back door and a separate set leading down to a basement door.

He walked over to the top of the basement steps, the vibe he was feeling was starting to feel a lot like being in a horror movie where the stupid teen does something stupid like go into the basement of an abandoned safe house. But there were no serial killers on the loose, he wasn’t being chased by some bad guy and he did leave Mr. Stark a message about where he’d be. 

“This isn’t stupid, right?” he said out loud, mostly to himself but Karen answered him.

“Mr. Stark has asked you repeatedly to be safe, Peter. This might not be very safe.”

“Pft,” he mumbled. “This is fine, totally fine.”

And as if to prove his point, he started down the steps. Nothing happened when he arrived at the door and to his surprise, it wasn’t locked and instead opened up when he tried the door handle. The basement was dark, but he found a light switch immediately.

When the room came into light, it was very clear that Peter had found not Dodger’s safe house, but most likely the lab he’d been using too. There were several long tables out, each holding different equipment. There didn’t look to be any of the actual drugs around which Peter took as a good thing, the last thing he needed was to be exposed again. 

He walked over to the tables, carefully looking over the items, without trying to touch anything. “Karen, make sure you’re recording all of this and send a message to Mr. Stark again. Let him know what I’ve found.”

He was just about to head back up the steps when he heard the door open and shut.

He turned around, staring at the person who just entered.

“What are you doing here?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I absolutely ended the last chapter with Peter promising not to get into trouble and then started this one with Peter pretty much suggesting he should get into trouble. :>


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oy, I'll be the first to admit this ending is not my A game! Sorry. :X I struggled with the ending to this a lot more then I usually do.

Peter kept still as he stared at Ricky, who stood in the doorway, a calming smile on his face. 

“Hi Ricky, what are you doing here?”

Ricky shrugged. “Thought you might try and head over here, just wanted to check in on you.”  
Peter didn’t believe it for a second. “Oh, well, I got this now. Thanks.”

Silence filled the basement for several moments and then Ricky laughed and shook his head. “Alright, alright. Let’s just cut the shit now, alright?”

“What are you talking about?” Peter questioned, he watched Ricky’s movements, making sure the guy didn’t have anything in his hands. As far as Peter could tell he didn't have any visible weapons. Ricky took a few steps forward, Peter stood his ground.

“You’re not an idiot Webs,” Ricky responded. “I mean, it seemed to take you a while but you’ve caught on now.”

Peter was pretty sure he knew what Ricky was referring to but he wanted to see how information Ricky would give, so he shrugged. “I dunno, Ricky. I don’t think I understand everything. Why don’t you explain it to me?”

Ricky laughed and rolled his eyes. “So, you’re either that stupid or stalling. I dunno which one would amuse me more.”

“How about I ask you a few questions and we see if we’re both on the same page?” 

Ricky moved again and when Peter stilled, he smiled at him as he walked over to one of the tables. It wasn’t closer to Peter, but it wasn’t farther away either. “Sure, why not?”

“You work for the Manfredi's?”

“No, not at all,” he chuckled, “in fact, just the opposite. When you brought me the drugs, I knew they were mine but I didn’t want you to know that. I sent you down the path of the Manfredi’s not only to keep you busy but to get rid of my competition. Never got a chance to thank you for your help there.”

It made him feel sick to his stomach that helped Ricky get rid of his competition. “Why are you doing all of this?”

“Why? Because I can. There’s no money in being a drug addict, the real money is in selling it.”

“You framed Dodger?” Peter continued to ask when it looked like Ricky was done with his explanation. Karen had sent him a message saying Mr. Stark and SHIELD were on their way and the eta was almost 10 minutes. 

“That’s on you Webs. Dodger was my partner in this business. I was hoping after the Manfredi family you’d leave well enough alone, but you didn’t. You kept pushing to find him! I had to give you what you wanted, so I killed him and set him up to take the complete fall. Which would have worked, if you were just well enough alone.”

Peter could see him grabbing something from the table before he leaned forward and walked a little closer to where Peter stood. He had his back against one of the tables, there was an easy way out of this, of course. Ricky wasn’t enhanced, he was just human and Peter could very easily get away from him. But now Peter knew he had a baggie of the drugs in his hands.

“I didn’t want to hurt you, honestly. You helped me out a lot but you put yourself in this mess by not leaving things alone. Now that you know about this place, I can’t just let you go Webs. You gotta be silenced.”

Ricky took a few more steps towards Peter, very quickly shot out two webs towards the man, both connected with his forearms, pushing him against and stuck to the table he just moved away from. 

“Really dude?” Peter said, jumping his way over to where Ricky was trying to break free. “Do you know anything about me?” He stopped in front of the struggling man. “I helped you,” Peter started shaking his head while looking him over. “I wanted you to get better and be a better person. Why did you have to do this?”

“Now you’re just being naive,” Ricky responded, he stopped struggling. “There doesn’t have to be any reason other than the one I gave you. I’m doing it because I can.”

Peter noticed the movement of Ricky’s wrist right before the action took place. While his arms were both stuck to the table, the webs were high enough to give his wrists enough movement. Peter attempted to lunge forward and stop him, but in the end, it just helped Ricky’s apparent plan. The baggie that was once in Ricky’s hand, was now opened and the powder inside of it filled the space between them, overcoming Peter’s senses immediately.

He lurched backward, but it wasn’t fast enough, he breathed in a large amount of powder, coughing immediately as he choked on the thickness of it. He could feel the particles all over his face and coating over his mask. He knew from before the mask would do little to stop the powder from getting in his mouth and nose.

He clamped it shut but it didn’t matter, he was breathing it all in any way.

He heard Ricky laughing from somewhere and in a haze of panic he shot out two webs. He figured they hit their mark because Ricky made a grunting sound and then shouted something at him. He failed around for a moment, the powder slowly clearing from his view, but he knew the damage was already done.

He coughed a few times, hands automatically going to his own throat, he tried to cough out as much as he could. 

“Call Mr. Stark,” He said immediately, as his HUD lit up in front of him. “Emergency, Karen.”

He coughed a few more times, Ricky’s laughter was still in his ears. He moved from the basement, going towards the stairs. Mr. Stark’s face soon filled his vision. “We’re almost there, kid. What’s wrong?”

“Ricky,” he wheezed out, “bad guys. Drugs everywhere. Inhaled them.”

“Shit, kid. Are you safe?”

“I guess,” he said, coughing again, he could hear Mr. Stark was shouting something, he had to squeeze his eyes shut tightly, his head was starting to pound. “Loud.”

“Hang in there, Pete. We’re right around the corner.” 

Peter nodded, moving up the stairs and stopping at the top of them. He was feeling heavy, tired, and a little dizzy. He planted himself at the top of the steps and laid back, half on the grass and half on the concrete. “‘Am, outside.” He informed Mr. Stark. “Backyard.”

He closed his eyes, listening to the sound of Mr. Stark’s voice. “We’ll be there in a minute, just keep hanging on there, kid.”

~*~

He heard the rescue arriving after some time and Mr. Stark’s face was hovering above his, with a worried expression. “Hey, kid.”

Peter wheezed a response but felt himself relax a little more knowing he would soon be safe again. A flurry of activity went around him, but he stayed focused on Mr. Stark’s face. 

After a minute or so, they quickly loaded him into the back of a car, throwing an oxygen mask on his face. Mr. Stark sat next to him, as he wheezed, his breathing never once going back to normal. His chest started hurting and he couldn’t tell if it was from the constant wheezing and hash breathing he’d been doing. He felt like he was back having asthma, no matter how he tried he couldn't take a deep breath in. He was trying to hold the overwhelming panic at bay but he was starting to lose it. 

“Take it easy,” Mr. Stark said as he placed a comforting hand on Peter’s back. “You have to keep breathing, Pete.”

“Can’t,” Peter choked out. He was still feeling dizzy and now, nausea was added to the list of problems. Too many things were happening all at once, he just wanted to close his eyes and sleep.

Peter felt Mr. Stark’s hand move down to his back, rubbing circles gently. “I know, kid but you’ve got to just keep trying. We’re almost at the Tower. Everyone’s on hand waiting for your grand entrance, okay?”

Peter nodded and closed his eyes, he was starting to feel tired but when he did, he felt Mr. Stark jostled him a little. “Stay awake, Pete.”

“Hmm,” he mumbled, but opened his eyes. “Don’t want to.”

“We don’t know what’s going to happen if you fall asleep on us, kid. We have to get you checked out first okay?”

Peter nodded weakly, the thought finally arriving in his head. He just took in a very large dose of the drug and he had no idea what it was going to do to him. He started breathing a little more rapidly, suddenly very concerned about what happened. 

“You’ll be okay, I promise,” Mr. Stark tried to assure him, but Peter wasn’t believing it. His lungs were on fire with every wheezing breath he took.

Peter hummed, his eyes starting to close a little but Mr. Stark jostled him lightly. “Sorry,” he said into another loud wheeze but he suddenly couldn’t stop wheezing. He struggled to sit up better, but he could barely get himself upright. Mr. Stark was helping him, Peter could feel his hand holding Peter up by his back.

Without warning, Peter felt as if he was having an out of body experience. He could feel himself sitting in the back seat, Mr. Stark’s hands-on him but at the same time, he felt so far away from it all. His entire body seemed to go rigid without warning and then he couldn’t stop moving. He felt the tremors throughout his entire body but he couldn’t figure out what was happening to him.

He was vaguely aware of Mr. Stark yelling at someone and being moved until he was laying down but all of it felt like it was happening to someone else. It was almost a blessing when his body finally relaxed and without his permission, he slipped out of conciseness.

~*~

Peter came in a jolt of movement, someone was holding down his shoulders as he tried to sit up and move. 

“Peter, he heard someone say, it took a few seconds to register that Mr. Stark was standing to his side, hands on his shoulders. There were a few other faces to his other side, but he couldn’t focus on who else was there. “Sit back down, kid.” He felt Mr. Stark pushed him back and Peter went willingly, landing back in a bed and not the car where he last remembered being. 

“Wha?” He started to talk but found the oxygen mask over his face getting in the way. He reached a hand out to move it but Mr. Stark stopped him, taking Peter’s hand in his own. “May?” He croaked out, wanting to see her face. 

He could feel his entire body wracked with tremors, his hands shaking almost as fast as his heart was beating. It felt like he was hit with a jolt of electricity and it started coursing through his veins. He could barely stay focused, his eyes starting to water the longer he kept them open. Peter wasn’t sure what a heart attack felt like, but this had to be close.

“Don’t take it off, it’s helping you right now,” Mr. Stark said, but he moved slightly and Peter caught sight of May standing next to him. She reached over and put her hand on Peter’s leg. “I’m here, sweetie.”

His chest was aching with every single breath he took and his head was hurting worse than he had been before. The strength he showed when trying to sit up all but vanished and he felt could barely lift his head anymore.

“Peter,” Dr. Reed was next to his other side, speaking to him in a soft but firm voice. “You’re going to be okay but I need to talk to you. Can you follow along with me?”

Peter nodded his head but didn’t know if he really could. Everything was so loud, bright, and out of focus. Dr. Reed had been talking again and it took Peter several seconds to narrow back into the sound of her voice. “You were exposed to the unknown drug and ketamine while at the lab. The amount of ketamine in your system was enough to cause a normal person to have an overdose. Thankfully you metabolized the ketamine pretty fast, but it did cause your breathing problems and the seizure you experienced in the car ride here. We’re combating the exposure the best we can and your levels are thankfully dropping. As long as the oxygen mask is helping we won’t need to intubate you, but if we see a problem, we might have to make that choice.”

Peter blinked a few times and suddenly the room seemed to tilt even though he was laying down. He’d never experienced such a wave of dizziness while being horizontal before. It made his head rush, his stomach cramp and he let out an involuntary whimper. He must have kept his eyes closed for a while because he felt a hand cupping the side of his voice and May’s voice. “Peter, can you open your eyes? I know it’s tough, but we need to make sure you’re awake.”

He opened them and brought up a shaky hand, reaching out for May. She let go of his face to take his hand instead. “Shh, it’s okay.” He hadn’t realized he was crying until he felt the tears rolling down his cheeks. The tremors were getting worse, especially the ones in his chest.

Dr. Reed had started talking again. “We don’t know a lot about the unknown substance still and it’s still very much present in your system. We’re concerned about what might happen when you fall asleep. After your seizure you were unconscious, your heart rate remained just as elevated. There’s almost triple the amount in your system than we’ve seen before. While we now have better samples, it will take some time for us to find a safe way to get it out of your system.”

He hadn’t felt the effects of the drug while he was awake and so far, it was almost worse than when he slept. If he couldn’t stay awake or sleep, what was going to happen to him? He couldn’t stop himself from freaking out, even if he tried. He could feel his heart rate going up, the beeping more persistent from the machine. Dr. Reed and the nurse suddenly looked up at the machine, worried expressions on their faces.

“Pete,” May said softly, as the beeping increased. “Relax, baby. I know it’s hard, but you need to try and relax.”

“Unconscious?” Peter asked, hoping they’d understand what he meant. If he couldn’t sleep then he wanted to be knocked out. He didn’t think he could last being awake feeling like he was.

“We can’t risk sedating you or giving you something to knock you out right now,” Dr. Reed answered. “Not with the levels of ketamine still in your system. Your breathing is already compromised enough as it is. Your healing abilities are helping you out here, I don’t think many could have survived how much of an overdose you experienced. You’ll suffer from respiratory failure if we try to push anything else on you.”

As if his body remembered the respiratory problems, he started coughing suddenly. The fit went on for a few minutes before he was able to take control of his breathing again. He closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down more. It wasn’t working very well, his mind wasn’t allowing him to stop doing anything other than thinking about everything at all time. His senses were starting to go into overdrive too, even with his eyes closed the light in the room was too bright. The sound of the hospital machinery was too loud, he let out a whine trying to bring his hands up to his ears.

He managed to do so, but it barely made a difference. He could feel someone trying to pull his hand away from his ears, but he refused. “Noo,” he said softly. “Please.”

“I know,” the voice said. “I know, Pete but you’re going to hurt yourself. You have to try and relax.”

He moved his hands away from his ears, bringing them down to his side. When he opened his eyes, the lights had dimmed and only Mr. Stark and May were still in the room with him. He didn’t know when anyone else left, but it seemed as if some time had passed. 

Peter had no idea how he was going to relax. The knowledge that they couldn't and weren’t doing anything for him scared him more than he would admit. They were just playing a waiting game until they could either find a way to get the drugs out of Peter’s system, or for them to get out on their own.

The tremors increased, his whole body shaking as if he was shivering constantly. With the increase of tremors came the loss of time. Peter wasn’t sleeping, he didn’t lose consciousness but time seemed to be playing games with him. 

One second he swore May was talking to him and in the next, she was gone. He’d blink and the time on the clock would change to an hour later. He didn’t say anything, he didn’t see the point. 

His breathing wasn’t as bad as it had been, the mask seemed to be helping enough. He felt like he was getting closer and closer to an edge of something, his body was tightening up, anxiety was strumming through his veins, no matter what he tried to do. He kept trying to tell himself he was safe and okay, but his brain refused to listen. The tremors were not helping the matter, he felt like he was going to vibrate out of his skin.

All he could do was try and relax, keep himself still on the bed, and hope that what he was feeling then, was the worst of it. 

~*~

The hallucinations came abruptly. Peter wasn’t completely focused, to begin with, things were hazy and he wasn’t sure of anything that was happening.

What he was sure was the room went from normal to on fire in the blink of an eye. Flames were dancing everywhere, the entire room was filled with an orange glow and Peter could feel the heat, the flames licking at his skin.

He screamed, or at least he hoped he was screaming. He couldn’t tell what he was doing, he felt disconnected from his own body. There were hands on him, hands that seemed to come out of nowhere. He moved his body, trying desperately to get away from the hands and the fire.

“No!” He shouted. “Get me out of here!”

“Pete,” he heard a voice call out to him, he couldn't tell where it was coming from. “Pete, please calm down.” He heard more shouting and suddenly people were walking through the flames and he screamed even louder.

“FIRE!” He shouted as the flames closed in closer to him. He felt like he was burning to death before the flames even got to him. He was shouting, moving his arms, and then he felt himself moving. He couldn’t tell what was happening but his brain was screaming at him that he was being picked up and moved somewhere. “No,” he screamed again. “PLEASE NO!”

The change from intense heat and fire to cold water was such a jolt it brought him into a moment of clarity.

“It’s okay, Pete,” Mr. Stark said as Peter realized where he was, lying in a bathtub. He gasped at the feeling of cold water rushing over his skin. He was still in the hospital gown, he was submerged in water, just up to his neck. Mr. Stark was directly hovering beside him, one hand on Peter’s neck, the other holding onto the edge of the tub. “That’s it, buddy, settle down.”

Peter nodded and let out a wet cough. The oxygen mask was off his face but he was able to breathe pretty well. “Mr. Stark?” He questioned, trying to figure out how he got here and why. “Fire?”

Mr. Stark gave him a fond smile. There were a few other people in the bathroom but he didn’t look at anyone else. Mr. Stark would know what was happening and help him. “No fire, Pete, just your fever spiking. We had to put you in a cool bath, kiddo. Just relax and it’ll be better.”

“I saw fire,” he said weakly. “Fire everywhere.”

Mr. Stark made a weird sound, Peter settled down into the water a little more, so it was up to his chin. “Hallucination, kid. We figured you’d start having them. We’re working on a fix, I promise.”

His moment of clarity came to a quick end when Peter suddenly sunk under the water, feeling as if he was falling again into endless water. He gasped, reached out, and tried to grab back onto Mr. Stark but he couldn't find him. Rationally he knew he wasn’t drowning but his body didn’t seem to get the memo, instead, he struggled to breathe, struggling to pull himself up. 

A pair of arms seemed to come out of nowhere and grab him, pulling him up from the water and he gasped, gratefully breathing in as much air as he could, coughing and choking a little. He felt himself moving again, but he couldn’t tell what was happening.

“Kid, you’re alright. C’mon Pete, I need you to try and focus on me, okay? Focus and breath, there’s nothing wrong with you.”

He opened his eyes briefly to see Mr. Stark hovering over him, as he found himself lying back in the hospital bed, or at least, it’s where he thought he was. He couldn’t tell what was happening, the room looked different, there was no fire around but it wasn’t the same. It felt as if he was in a dream world but he knew he was awake. 

“Tony,” Peter whined high in his throat, he rolled over to his side. He could barely focus on what he was seeing. The room was blurry, his head was messing with him still, it was hard to figure out if what he saw and felt was even real. “Tony,” he called out again. 

“I’m here,” he heard Tony say as he appeared in front of him. Well, at least, he hoped the blurry shape was Tony. Peter reached out and grabbed onto his arm. “You’re okay, kid.”

“I can’t,” Peter said in a whisper, he let out a hoarse cough. The few moments of lucidness he was feeling was fleeting him. His body hurt in a way he couldn’t describe. He was warm and heavy, but he felt as if he was floating away from where he was. Nothing around him looked like it was right. 

“Can’t what, Pete?” 

“I can’t,” he gasped. “I can’t do this. I can’t, I just, I can’t Tony!” 

Tony made a soft sound and Peter felt his hand card through his sweaty hair. “It’s okay, kid. Whatever you’re seeing, it’s not real. You just need to breathe and relax, I promise we’re close to getting these drugs out of your system.”

The monster lurked closer and Peter could see it now, it was moving towards him and he was defenseless. He couldn’t remember why but he felt like he shouldn’t let the monster get him. “Help.”

The whine that escaped Peter’s throat was embarrassing but he was past that now. He could barely hold onto a single thought in his head. He could feel Tony’s hands on his face, patting his cheeks. “Come on Pete, open those eyes.”

He wanted to, he wanted to but the monster was there still, getting closer and closer. When he was a kid, he’d always stuck to the adage of, if I can’t see it, it can’t hurt me and he was sticking to it now.

“Pete, please, come on, kid. You can’t sleep right now. You’ve gotta stay awake.”

“Protect me?” He questioned, sneaking open a single eye to look at Tony. “Please.” 

His senses were going wild, he could feel something looming closer and closer to him, but he didn’t know what it was.

“Yeah, I got you. Iron Man is here, I’ll protect you.”

Peter nodded and somehow it seemed to help him just a little. He squeezed his eyes closed again, but his breathing seemed to be coming down. The monster, still lurking, seemed to be backing off. He opened his eyes and kept them locked onto Tony’s face. He just needed to anchor himself to something and his hero would protect him from whatever was trying to get him.

“That’s it,” he heard Tony’s voice cutting through the haze and panic. “That’s it, just stay focused on me. I’ll protect you from anything that’s out there kid.”

Very slowly, Peter seemed to get better. The tremors were slowing, the hallucinations were disappearing. It felt like he was coming up from a fog, the world very slowly coming back together and a lot clearer. 

He wasn’t sure how long he spent with his hands tightly wrapped around Tony’s, but at some point, the man was replaced by May. By then he was feeling better, but they still wouldn’t let him close his eyes for very long. They tried to keep Peter as calm as possible each time he was awake, assuring him everything was fine and the drugs were working their way out of his system.

At some point, Dr. Reed came to interject him with something that was going to help him flush out the rest of what was left. As soon as she did, he assured Peter he’d be able to sleep within a few hours.

The second Tony gave him the okay to sleep, he was out like a light.

~*~

If he had a nightmare after he slept, he didn’t know it. The sleep that overtook him was seemingly dreamless. He awoke on his own, coming out of it to the sounds of the heart monitor beeping a lot less frantically than it had been over the last few days.

May was there, sitting in a chair looking tired. “Hey,” he called out to her, his voice sounded like sandpaper. He coughed a little, realizing the oxygen mask was finally off his face. 

“Oh Peter,” May came over and sat on the edge of his head. She took his hand into hers. “How are you feeling?”

He shrugged, his body was sore overall, his head hurt a little but it was a vast improvement. “Okay, I guess. Uh, how long have I been out for?”

She smiled. “Well, you were awake for about 24 hours but you’ve been sleeping for at least 72.”

“Wow,” he said. “I uh, had no idea. I guess I needed it?”

She laughed a little and it made him feel a whole lot better, more so than any medication could ever. “I guess so.”

She called Dr. Reed to come in, to give him a once over. It was there Peter found out the drug was almost completely out of his system and he should be good to go home the next day. He shouldn’t have any lasting side effects now, especially not any nightmare-inducing ones.

By lunchtime, he was feeling more awake than he had in a long time. Awake enough to want to start asking some questions he’d been thinking about. Mr. Stark hadn’t shown up and Peter was a little worried he scared the guy away. From what he could remember, he knew he was acting like a little lost kid, clinging to him and even, ugh, calling him Tony at one point. He was sure the guy was avoiding him.

“Is Mr. Stark around?” Peter finally asked May, when his lunch arrived.

May nodded. “I can get him for you? He was a little worried you wouldn’t want to see him.”

“Oh,” Peter said lamely. “I was worried he wouldn’t want to see me.”

She laughed a little and got up from her chair. “You two are way too much alike. Let me go find him and send him in. I need a little break and to stretch my legs anyway.”

She disappeared out of the room and a few minutes later, there was a soft knock before Mr. Stark came in. He looked a little apprehensive, but walked over and took a seat in the one May vacated. “Hey, kid. Glad you’re back in the land of the living.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“Feeling better, I take it?”

“Yeah, a lot actually. So uh, thank you and stuff.”

Mr. Stark chuckled. “Not a problem, kid.”

There was an awkward silence that filled the room and Peter went to his food to avoid doing absolutely nothing. 

“So uh,” Peter started before taking a bite of his turkey sandwich when he realized Mr. Stark wasn’t going to start a conversation himself. “What happened to Ricky?”

He’s going to jail, for a long, long time.”

“Oh, okay. Was the lab at the safehouse the only one? Did SHIELD get rid of all the drugs?”

“We don’t know for sure,” Mr. Stark answered. “From what we’ve got out of Ricky, which wasn't much, it looks like he was the only one manufacturing the drugs. SHIELD is working on tracking down anything else.”

“Okay, good.”

“You did good, kid,” Mr. Stark said, he got up from the chair and sat on the edge of Peter’s bed. “SHIELD will take care of everything.”

“Did Ricky say how he got the space drug?” Peter questioned, he put down his sandwich and moved the tray from his lap. “Or if they really were space drugs?”

“Nope, he’s being pretty quiet on that front but SHIELD's good, they’ll get to the root of it soon or later.”

Peter nodded. He really wanted to make sure the drugs were off the street and no one else would have to deal with anything close to what he had. He also felt bad about the whole thing still, still felt like it was his fault.

“Something else is bothering you,” Mr. Stark said, a little too knowingly. “Talk to me.”

“I feel stupid, to be honest,” Peter mumbled. The tiredness and the drug made him feel a little looser about his feelings then he usually would be. That and he acted pretty embarrassingly already in front of Mr. Stark.

“For?” Mr. Stark questioned.

“Trusting Ricky first of all,” Peter started. “And for thinking, I could handle things on my own. And for getting dosed a third time. And for taking out the Manfredi family, helping Ricky with his evil scheme. He used me, you know? And I just went along with it, didn’t ask questions. Just trust him and exactly what he was telling me.”

Mr. Stark was silent, Peter worried a little, thinking he’d get a lecture out of this for sure now but Mr. Stark looked relaxed still. “You don’t need to feel stupid, Pete.”

Peter opened his mouth to speak but Mr. Stark held up his hand. “Nuh-uh, I’m about to give you some words of wisdom now. This is the part where you listen and grow or something,” he waved his hand and then cleared this throat. “Everyone, no matter how smart they are, is going to trust someone who leads them astray. You did everything you could to save people and while it might not have worked out in the end, you still saved the day. If you hadn’t gone out a limb with trusting Ricky, who knows how long it would have taken us to find out where the drugs were coming from.”

“Really?” Peter questioned, he didn’t expect this out of Mr. Stark. He knew they were mad he didn’t ask for help before, but after he messed up with Ricky he was sure he’d be equally as mad.

“I'd prefer if we didn’t have to find out about you getting drugged by accident, but after that, you asked for help when you needed it. You’re still learning, I don’t expect you to be perfect but I do expect you to learn from your mistakes.”

Peter nodded. “Trust me, after this, I’ve learned the hard way.”

Mr. Stark reached out and placed his hand on Peter’s knee. “I would hope so.”

“And uh,” Peter started. “Um, sorry I called you Tony, and uh, was a toddler. I didn’t have control over what I was doing and I was um, scared.”

Mr. Stark gave him a very fond smile, one that reminded him of Ben just a little. “You don’t have to apologize for that, Pete. I've been asking you to call me Tony for ages now. You’re the one with the hang-ups on that end. And the clinginess, was dare I say it? Cute?”

“Oh no,” Peter moaned, feeling his face getting warmer. “No, Mr. Stark. Not cute.”

“Oh no, Pete. It was adorable actually, you wanted Iron Man to protect you. May told me some pretty embarrassing stories about how much you loved Iron Man as a kid.”

Peter closed his eyes, embarrassed but hiding back a smile. “Oh noo, please don't’ tell me anything. I’d rather not know what she told you.”

The chuckle he heard from Mr. Stark only made his smile widen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading! You can find me [ on Tumblr](https://asyouleft.tumblr.com/) where I mostly post pictures of my cats and reblog random things but am always welcome to new friends. :D


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